Headline News

4, June 2016

Boko Haram captures town in southeastern Niger ⁰

Militants of the Nigeria-based Boko Haram Takfiri group have reportedly captured a rural town in southeastern Niger after launching a large-scale offensive in the troubled border area. Local residents said Boko Haram extremists mounted an all-out attack against Bosso, located around 1,365 kilometers (848 miles) from Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Friday afternoon, forcing Nigerien military forces to withdraw from the area without any resistance.

On November 25, 2015, 18 people were killed, eleven hurt, and 100 homes torched in a Boko Haram militant attack against the village of Wogom close to Bosso. A humanitarian worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Takfiris came from Nigeria and crossed the Komadougou Yobe River, which lies on the border between Niger and Nigeria.

Militants and bombers from Boko Haram terrorist group have staged repeated attacks in Niger’s southeastern region of Diffa near Nigeria since February, leaving hundreds of people dead. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria. It has so far taken the lives of at least 17,000 people and forced over 2.5 million others to flee their homes.

The terror group has pledged allegiance to Daesh Takfiri terrorists, who are mainly wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq. Boko Haram has spread its attacks from northeastern Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, into neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

Presstv

4, June 2016

Obama condemns violence at Trump rally ⁰

US President Barack Obama has condemned the violence at a rally by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in San Jose, California. During a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Florida on Friday, Obama said that there’s no room for politics that ignores opposing opinions.

“It is very important for us to remind ourselves of who we are and what is best about American democracy and not slip into some of the bad habits that currently manifest themselves in the other party,” Obama said.

“We saw in San Jose these protesters starting to pelt stuff [at] Trump supporters. That’s not what our democracy is about,” he added. “That’s not what you do,” Obama said. “There’s no room for violence. There’s no place for shouting. There’s no room for a politics that fails to at least listen to the other side, even if you vehemently disagree. Because I believe if you’ve got the better argument, then you don’t need to do that. Just go out there and organize and persuade.”

Presstv

4, June 2016

Muhammad Ali passes on at 74 ⁰

Muhammad Ali has died at the age of 74, a family spokesman has said. The former world heavyweight boxing champion, one of the world’s best-known sportsmen, died at a hospital in the US city of Phoenix, Arizona, after being admitted on Thursday.

He was suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson’s disease. The funeral will take place in Ali’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, his family said in a statement.

BBC

3, June 2016

There are reasons why Minister Minette Libom was at the Special Criminal Court ⁰

By Vincent Ebong

Minette Libom Li Likeng, Cameroon’s Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL), with some highly placed government officials were interrogated by investigators from the judicial police unit attached to the Special Criminal Court on May 26, 2016. The MINPOSTEL was summoned by a pro CPDM police commissioner Enyegue Mbolong on May the 10th, 2016.

Minister Minette Libom was questioned over an issue of misappropriation of public funds during her time at the General Directorate of Customs. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from government sources that the Minette Libom Affair is connected to the “Project Nexus “launched ever since August 4, 2009.

The matter has become intractable following revelations that the complaint was filed to the court by the current Minister of Finance, Ousman Mey Alamine who reportedly was at daggers-drawn positions with Minette Libom at the time she was Director General (DG) of the Cameroon Customs.

It is now left for prosecutors of the Legal Affairs Division to shed light on the allegations listed in the Minister Mey Alamine correspondence. At the time of filing this report, our intel unit learnt that the Finance Ministry has forwarded the findings of an internal investigation to the Special Criminal Court.

3, June 2016

Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton has to go to jail ⁰

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton should be imprisoned for her use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state. “I will say this, Hillary Clinton has got to go to jail,” Trump told supporters Thursday at a rally in San Jose, California, as he slammed Clinton’s foreign policy speech earlier in the day in which Clinton called Trump dangerous and “temperamentally unfit” to be president.

“Folks, honestly, she is guilty as hell,” Trump said. “Hillary Clinton has to go to jail.” Trump’s criticism of Clinton was among his strongest in a growing escalation of words between the two presidential candidates ahead of California’s June 7 state primary election. Earlier Thursday, Clinton unleashed a blistering criticism of Trump on foreign policy and said he was “unfit” to be president. More than 2,000 emails sent and received by Clinton while working as the top US diplomat between 2009 and 2013 include classified information, which the government bans from being handled outside secure, government-controlled channels.

In a report issued last week, the US State Department’s inspector general said Clinton’s use of a private email server at her home in New York violated the department’s record-keeping rules and that it would have been rejected had she asked department officials. Clinton also faces a separate probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Republican lawmakers in Congress appear ready to protest strongly if the FBI closes its investigation without delivering indictments or offering a public explanation.

And although Clinton leads Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in the delegate count, Sanders argues that he still has a path to the Democratic presidential nomination. During her speech on Thursday, Clinton said “Donald Trump’s ideas aren’t just different — they are dangerously incoherent,” Clinton said. “They’re not even really ideas — just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies.” “He’s not just unprepared — he’s temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility,” she continued. The speech was intended to undercut Trump’s ability to woo national security-focused independent and Republican voters, the aide said. “This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes,” she declared, claiming Trump could start a war just because somebody “got under his very thin skin.”

Presstv

3, June 2016

Cameroon: Two suspected highway robbers killed at Touboro ⁰

The bodies of two suspected highway robbers were discovered early on Friday morning at Touboro in the North of the country. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from security sources that the two men were chased for days by elements of the mechanized infantry division (BIM) located in Touboro in the Mayo-Rey district. The heavily armed men fired the first salvo and were subsequently killed during exchanges of fire with Cameroon government forces.

Insecurity is growing in this small town in northern Cameroon. People live with fear every day. Traders are kidnapped and ransoms demanded. On May 24, some road bandits were killed in Bougoué, near Touboro, by plain cloth police officers operating within the locality. On the 1^st of June, a trader from the Mbai- Mboum village located 35 km from Touboro was kidnapped by heavily armed men. A ransom of 15 million CFA francs was demanded by the criminals.

3, June 2016

Muhammad Ali in hospital ⁰

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has been hospitalized for a respiratory issue, a family spokesperson has said. The 74-year-old is reportedly being treated and currently in fair condition.

Family spokesman Bob Gunnell confirmed Ali’s condition to the Associated Press. Ali suffers Parkinson’s disease. He was diagnosed in 1984 after quitting boxing. He was last seen out in public back in April when he attended the Celebrity Fight Night charity event in Arizona.

3, June 2016

Yaounde: CPDM taxis still in circulation ⁰

In Yaounde, it is common to find township taxis circulating with shattered head lights, door handles fastened with ropes to enable them open or close, worn-out tyres, cracked windscreens, unstable seats and at times, too dirty with cockroaches running on passengers. This unkempt state of cabs in Yaounde has not only left passengers disappointed as they break down in the course of transportation but has also left others injured due to the presence of exposed sharp objects.

Most passengers in Yaounde, can testify on the risk in boarding a cab while wearing a white dress or carrying something delicate. Rose Ebot is one of those who got into a cab and after alighting she could not continue her other activities for the day just because the back of her dress was not only dirty but wet. Rose explained “the moment I stepped out of the taxi, a passer-by called my attention to the fact that my dress was dirty behind. I quickly patted my palms over and moved on thinking it was okay. But later I was made to understand that I was dirty because there was this visible trace of wetness around the buttock region of my dress.” It is at this point that Rose realised that the taxi she had entered was not only dirty but had wet chairs.

There are those who have sustained bruises and wounds because they came in contact with sharp objects in the taxi either from the ramshackle nature of the taxi chair or the instruments the driver has used to either support an old door or the widescreen. Helene B narrates how she sustained a wound on one of her legs as she struggled to alight from a cab. The driver of that cab instead said “be careful not to dirty my car chairs with blood”. In spite of the worrying state of cabs in Yaounde, the appearance of the cab drivers leaves much to be desired. Most cab drivers are very unkempt especially in the morning.

Most passengers say it is unbearable to pick up a cab in the morning because of the odour from the driver who had not even brushed his teeth before leaving his home. Some of them do not even clean their faces talk less of putting on a clean dress, another passenger Ebenye M noted. Only the smell from some taxi driver and the bad state of their taxis has left many wondering. But many people say despite such, they have had no choice but to board such cabs especially when in a hurry. The current decision by the government to clear Cameroonian roads of such taxis as the country awaits the Female African Nations Cup is welcomed.

Cameroon Tribune

3, June 2016

Iran braces for a decisive and difficult confrontation with the US ⁰

A senior military commander says Iran is ready for a “decisive and difficult confrontation” with the US after Hillary Clinton threatens Tehran with military action. Defining her hawkish foreign policy in a speech Thursday in San Diego, Clinton said the US could disarm Iran by military action if she became the president. “Although talk of all options being on the table against Iran is a propaganda show in the United States, the Islamic Iran is prepared for a decisive and difficult confrontation with any American option,” Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran armed forces, said on Friday.

“Our nation and armed forces have never sought a war, but they have not neglected their defensive preparation for a moment,” the commander said. “In case the American military threats are implemented, they (Iranians) are ready to rid humanity of the evil of America’s warmongering and hegemonic policies in a real and direct battle,” he added. In her speech, Clinton took credit for a nuclear agreement that allows Iran to continue its peaceful nuclear program but keeps Clinton’s hypothetical war with Iran on the table.

“The world must understand that the United States will act decisively if necessary, including with military action, to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” Clinton said. “In particular, Israel’s security is non-negotiable. They’re our closest ally in the region and we have a moral obligation to defend them,” she added. The nuclear agreement was reached after the UN confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran’s program after years of inspections. A self-imposed ban under a fatwa issued by Iran’s top religious authority prohibits the country from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran’s biggest enemy in the region, Israel, is widely believed to possess the only arsenal of nuclear warheads in the Middle East.

Culled from Presstv

3, June 2016

In or Out: Cameron hits out at Brexiters ⁰

British Prime Minister David Cameron has hit out at ‘Brexiters’ who grilled him during a live TV debate on the future of the United Kingdom in the European Union. The debate aired by Sky News shows Cameron criticizing UK’s possible exit from the EU as an act of “economic self-harm.” Audience in the debate, however, slammed Cameron, accusing him of scaremongering over the impact of quitting the 28-nation bloc.

On thorny issues such as immigration, Cameron said a Brexit was not the solution. “There are good ways of controlling migration and there are bad ways,” Cameron said. On economy, he lashed out at critics of Britain’s continued membership in the EU, saying, “It would be madness to try to do that by trashing our economy and pulling out of the single market.” Cameron conceded, however, that he often found dealings with the EU frustrating. “Sometimes this organization drives me crazy,” he said. “But do I sit there thinking Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? Absolutely not.”

Britain will vote on June 23 on whether or not it should stay in the EU. The decision has far-reaching consequences for both the country and the bloc. Membership of the European Union has been a controversial issue in the UK since the country joined the then European Economic Community in 1973.Those in favor of remaining in the bloc argue that leaving it would risk the UK’s prosperity, diminish its influence over world affairs, and result in trade barriers between the UK and the EU.

On the spectrum, Britons who favor withdrawal believe that outside the bloc, the UK would be better off in conducting its own trade negotiations, better able to control immigration and free from what they believe to be excessive EU regulations and bureaucracy.

Presstv