An explosion has rocked the Port Authority bus terminal near Times Square in New York.  The explosion took place on Monday morning at the station, which is one of the busiest commuter hubs during rush hour, at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in New York, according to officials.

“The NYPD is responding to reports of an explosion of unknown origin at 42nd Street and 8th Ave, #Manhattan. The A, C and E line are being evacuated at this time. Info is preliminary, more when available,” the New York police department wrote on their Twitter account.

Law enforcement sources said one suspected bomber – who had wires attached to him – was taken into custody. He was arrested after the device partially detonated, according to sources. His identity was not immediately known. Francisco Ramirez — a commuter — told CNN that he heard two explosions as he was exiting a bus about 7:45 a.m. ET.

“From what I saw it sounded like it came from the subway, but I’m just guessing,” he said. “It was two distinct explosions seconds from each other. As I was making my way toward the outside, I kept getting shoved by cops and there were cops at every entrance blocking and there was police and SWAT everywhere.”

“It was scary. It was just a lot of chaos but I didn’t see any injuries,” he added.  President Donald Trump was briefed on the explosion, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. New York Mayor de Blasio has also been briefed on the incident.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has once again railed against the media blasting journalists and calling their work “a stain on America” after a string of errors in reporting on his presidency emerged over the past week.

“Very little discussion of all the purposely false and defamatory stories put out this week by the Fake News Media. They are out of control — correct reporting means nothing to them. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed…a stain on America!” Trump tweeted Sunday.

The tweet came after some journalists made several reporting errors causing them to become targets of Trump and conservative media and commentators.

The errors by CNN and ABC have been widely covered in the media, including on CNN, which featured a Sunday segment on mistakes in journalism.

Trump referred to ABC News’s Brian Ross as a “fraudster” on Friday, a week after he reported that the president had directed his former national security adviser Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials during the campaign.

ABC later corrected the report to say the president directed Flynn to contact Russia “after” he was elected.

Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel has also became Trump’s most recent target after the president demanded Saturday that he apologize for tweeting a photo of an empty arena before a Trump rally in Florida that had been taken hours before the event started.

Weigel responded and apologized minutes after Trump tweeted that he had “put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived.”

Trump’s comments were his latest attack against the news media for the coverage he receives. During a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, in August, he called journalists “truly dishonest” and “sick people.”

Trump has repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on critical media reports about his administration, often without providing any evidence to support his case.

As a candidate, Trump had pursued the same anti-media rhetoric threatening to “open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”

Source: Presstv

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed that since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis, 5, 277 Ambazonian refugees have so far been registered by the UNHCR agency in Nigeria.

The UN says it is running out of resources to support new asylum seekers who arrived on December the 4^th in Cross River State after the 84 year old French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons.

The UN body noted that new asylum seekers from Akwaya, Otu, Eyumojock, Nsan, Dadi and Bodam arrived Cross River State in Southern Nigeria. “A joint registration team from UNHCR and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) will continue biometric registration for new arrivals in Cross River State” UNHCR stated.

The Southern Cameroonian refugees have been receiving food and non-food items including mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils and hygiene kits from the UN. But with the renewed escalation of the conflict in Cameroon and the arrival of thousand new asylum seekers, the ability to respond has been affected by the lack of additional resources to support newcomers.

Cameroon Concord News understands that the UNHCR Nigeria and its partners have developed a contingency plan for about 40,000 newcomers from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia with a nominal budget of $ 18 million.

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv to vent their anger at the regime corruption, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down. Israeli media estimated that about 10,000 people turned out for the protest dubbed the “March of Shame” in Tel Aviv on Saturday. Similar demonstrations also took place in other Israeli cities.

Saturday’s rally was part of the weekly events sparked by corruption allegations against Netanyahu, who has been questioned in two cases and is suspected of being involved in bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Around 20,000 Israelis join the demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, holding up signs reading “Crime Minister.”

Protesters held banners reading, “Crime Minister,” “Neither left, nor right (we demand) integrity,” “We are fed up with corrupt (politicians)” and “Sweep the corrupt away.” They further shouted slogans such as “Corporate power, organized crime,” “We won’t stop until Bibi resigns,”  “The people demand legal justice,” “Shame-Mafia” and “Bibi go home.”

Demonstrator Mira Levni said the Israelis “don’t like … the behavior of our leaders.” “I came to protest this unbelievable racist and corrupt regime. We are going to keep coming to protest until Netanyahu goes down,” said another demonstrator, Yigal Shtayim.

Another participant, Sigal Aviv, stressed that in addition to graft, the event was meant to denounce the Tel Aviv regime’s policies such as occupation and mistreatment of refugees.

“Our idea is to voice that this demonstration should include other issues, not only the issue of corruption, the corruption is only the symptom, it’s not the disease, the disease is the occupation, the disease is the way the regime treats refugees, the way it treats lower class people in Israel,” she said.

Netanyahu is suspected of having received luxury gifts from businessmen overseas in Case 1000. He is also being investigated in Case 2000 for an alleged media bribery scheme to help Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper against its competitor Israel Hayom in return for favorable coverage of the premier.

Source: Presstv

An armed group has attacked a base of the United Nations peacekeepers in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least 14 peacekeepers and wounding 40 others.

The UN peacekeepers, who were mostly from Tanzania with at least five Congolese soldiers, blamed the Friday attack on a rebel group based in neighboring Uganda.

“It’s a very huge attack, certainly the worst in recent memory,” said UN deputy-spokesman Farhan Haq from New York.

The base, which is located about 45 kilometers from the town of Beni, has been repeatedly attacked by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel group. It is home to the peacekeeping mission’s rapid intervention force, which has a rare mandate to go on the offensive, according to Radio Okapi, which is backed by the UN mission.

The UN has described the attack in Congo as the worst in the recent UN history as well as a war crime.

The radio station, citing military sources, said fighting had lasted four hours.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo had one of the most brutal colonial rules before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship and back-to-back civil wars that left the mineral-rich country poor and politically unstable.

In 2006, the UN mission helped carry out Congo’s first free and fair elections in 46 years, paving the way for President Joseph Kabila to be elected for a five-year term.

His second term in office ended in 2016. Under the DR Congo’s constitution, Kabila is banned from seeking a third term. However, Kabila is authorized to stay in office until his successor is elected but he decided to remain in power. This prompted the UN to urge the Congolese authorities “to respect the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Congolese Constitution.”

The delay in holding an election has flared up violence in the country.

Source: Presstv

Armed Southern Cameroons militants reportedly staged a series of attacks deep inside Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu on Thursday the 7th of December 2017. According to sources from the South West Gendarmerie Legion, the Mamfe gendarmerie company headquarters was attacked.

Constable Keli Hervé of the class of 2015 was killed and nine other gendarmes were seriously injured. Cameroun government sources say five of the assailants were killed in the attack. The same sources indicated that during the attack, a vehicle belonging to the Mamfe gendarmerie was carried away by the attackers who abandoned it further on the Mamfe – Bamenda highway. This new attack brings to eleven the number of elements of the Cameroonian forces killed ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis.

Source: Cameroun Info.Net

Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo is among a Biya Francophone government delegation that travelled to the Buea County to pay tribute to the soldiers and policemen killed by suspected Anglophone militants in Eyumojock and Akwaya sub constituencies.

Beti Assomo was expected in the Upper House in Yaounde for a discussion on the Southern Cameroons crisis today December 8^th 2017. Cameroon Concord News understands, the defense boss has dispatched the Secretary of State for Defense in charge of the gendarmerie Minister Jean Baptiste Bokam to meet the senators in the 3rd parliamentary session of the legislative year 2017.

Joseph Beti Assomo arrived Buea yesterday accompanied by Martin Mbarga Nguele, the Delegate General for National Security. Mr. Beti Assomo will inter alia coordinate a special security meeting on the army operations in the Manyu State.

By Sama Ernest

“Biafra youth form alliance with Anglophone secessionists”

DISCLAIMER:

The attention of the Interim Gov’t of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has been drawn to a fabricated cover story in The Guardian Post newspaper No. 1313 of Thursday December 7, 2017

The story, titled “Biafra youth form alliance with Anglophone secessionists,” which is essentially an advertorial paid for by the Cameroun Gov’t, is a frame-up meant to discredit the Ambazonia Interim Gov’t and to smear relations with the Federal Gov’t of Nigeria which is home to thousands of refugees fleeing genocide, arrest and torture by Cameroun troops. The Guardian Post story states that the IG is forming an alliance with a group of Nigerians to fight the Gov’t of Cameroun. That is not true.

We note that the Republic of Cameroun first began circulating this narrative on social media before sponsoring the Guardian Post to run the story. The Post did not care to verify the story, nor did it care to corroborate their facts with the IG since it was a hit job.

The Interim Gov’t renounces the story and any form of relationship as reported therein with any group or groups in any part of Nigeria. The Guardian Post will do well to begin practicing real journalism instead of ‘jumbo’ and sensational reports that leave the publication without integrity. What the Guardian Post has published is a disservice and a disgrace to the profession of journalism.

The IG of Ambazonia has made it clear time and again that Ambazonia is neither a secessionist nor separatist movement or Gov’t. It is a restorationist Gov’t. Ambazonians are neither seceding nor separating because nothing, nothing bound us before with the Republic of Cameroun. If the Republic of Cameroun thinks there is, then the burden is theirs to prove.

Let it be made known in no uncertain terms that when it comes to defending our country, the IG needs no alliances to do so. Should Paul Biya and his gov’t take us down that route, Ambazonians can rest assured that we will be well able to defend our land without depending on any foreign alliances or groups.

SIGNED: Chris Anu

Communication Secretary,

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Cameroon must act swiftly on the recommendations published today by the UN Committee against Torture and put an end to the widespread use of torture by security forces fighting Boko Haram, Amnesty International said.

The Committee expressed deep concerns about the use of secret torture chambers documented by Amnesty International in July, and its failure to clarify whether investigations were being carried into these allegations, as well as other reports of killings of civilians and enforced disappearances.

“With the Committee against Torture now also demanding an end to the use of torture in Cameroon, it is becoming impossible for the world to ignore the widespread practice of torture in the country,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International’s Lake Chad researcher.

“The clamour for justice is growing and Cameroonian authorities should respond by taking these reports of torture far more seriously and launching an independent and efficient investigation into these horrific practices.”

Based on submissions from organisations including Amnesty International, the UN Committee noted that large numbers of people from Cameroon’s Far North region are likely to have been held incommunicado and tortured by members of the military and the intelligence services in at least 20 illegal detention facilities between 2013 and 2017.

The Committee also raised concerns that this torture took place with the likely knowledge of senior BIR and intelligence officers at one military base, and that dozens of people may have died following torture and inhuman conditions of detention.

In its recommendations the Committee called on Cameroon to publish a declaration from the highest state level affirming an absolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment and put an end to the practice of incommunicado detention.

It also called for effective, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture, incommunicado detention and death in custody, and for alleged perpetrators and accomplices of such acts, including those in command responsibility, be prosecuted and sentenced in proportion to the seriousness of the offences.

Elsewhere in its concluding observations, the UN Committee also echoed concerns raised by Amnesty International and others in relation to human rights violations committed in the Anglophone regions of the country, including by demanding an investigation into the deaths of at least 20 people killed in October in clashes between the security forces and protestors.

The Committee criticized the failure of Cameroon to provide information on the number of people still detained following protests in the regions, or whether investigations had been launched into the excessive use of force.

UN experts also noted their concerns that journalists such as RFI correspondent Ahmed Abba had been charged under counter-terrorism laws, and that some had been subjected to torture while in detention. The Committee also criticized the regular use of military courts in trials of civilians.

“The UN’s anti-torture experts have recognised that there is a major problem in Cameroon, and their warnings should be heeded. There should be no tolerance of human rights violations like torture, and we hope that the Cameroonian authorities and international community will respond to this report with the seriousness it deserves,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi.

Background

On 7-8 November, the Committee against Torture convened in Geneva, where among other things it completed a two-day review of Cameroon’s fifth periodic report on its implementation of the provisions of the Convention against Torture covering the period 2010-2015.

The Committee – which is comprised of 10 independent experts – engaged in a dialogue with the Cameroonian delegation which included representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Police, and the Permanent Mission of Cameroon to the United Nations Office at Geneva. Cameroon is among the 162 state parties to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Source: Amnesty.org

Cameroon’s government has ordered thousands of villagers to leave their homes in the Anglophone Southwest region as it deploys troops to root out armed separatists who have vowed to loosen President Paul Biya’s long grip on power.

The deployment marks an escalation of Biya’s year-long crackdown on peaceful protests in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions that has killed dozens of civilians and forced thousands to flee their homes in fear of reprisals.

Now, the government is using force to confront an insurgency that has sprung up alongside the civil unrest.

The separatists have killed at least eight soldiers and policemen over the past month as part of their campaign to break from the capital Yaounde in Francophone Cameroon and form a separate state called Ambazonia.

Authorities of the Manyu Division in the Southwest on Dec. 1 gave the order to evacuate 16 villages across the region. They warned that anyone deciding to stay “will be treated as accomplices or perpetrators of ongoing criminal occurrences.”

Motorbikes, a preferred mode of transport for separatist attackers, were ordered off the roads between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“People ran helter skelter when they saw the statement,” said Agbor Valery, a lawyer in Mamfe, which is near some of the evacuated villages. He said people were afraid of being rounded up and put in jail, as has happened since September in other areas of the English-speaking part of the country. “If you go to the villages, everyone has fled. Only the old people stayed. The streets are quiet. It is highly militarized. At night, you hear gunfire.”

Valery said he saw hundreds of troops and truck loads of military equipment arrive in Mamfe on Sunday that were then deployed to the surrounding villages.

Reuters was unable to independently verify his account but two military sources in the city of Bamenda in Northwest region confirmed that additional security forces have been deployed in the English-speaking regions.

Problems for Biya

The separatist movement compounds problems for 84-year-old Biya, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and plans to stand for another term next year. The economy has slowed sharply since 2014, while attacks in the Far North region by Islamist militant group Boko Haram have strained the military.

The fall last month of Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe after decades in power highlights the potential vulnerability of Africa’s long serving rulers amid a growing grassroots push for strict term limits for presidents.

Last week Biya vowed to flush out secessionists, whom he called “criminals.” Defense minister Joseph Beti Assomo said on Monday the new deployment would “prevent terrorists from harming others.”

Violence has spiraled since last year when government forces crushed peaceful protests by Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting their perceived marginalization by the French-speaking majority.

The heavy-handed government response fuelled support for the separatist movement, which has existed on the fringes of Cameroonian politics for decades.

The response has also forced thousands out of their homes.

More than 5,000 have fled Anglophone Cameroon across the border to Nigeria since Oct. 1, the United Nations said. Nigeria is also English-speaking.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said it is making preparations for up to 40,000 refugees.

“Go home to where?”

Refugees’ stories have been slow to emerge because of government-imposed internet outages that have blocked messaging and social media sites like Facebook and Whatsapp. But they are beginning to shed light on what new refugees will likely face.

Abia David told Reuters that he left Bamenda in Northwest Cameroon on Oct. 27 amid widespread arrests in the town. He heard from friends that the police were coming to arrest him because he is a member of an opposition political group.

To escape Bamenda, and avoid its increasingly crowded jail, he cycled 16 kilometers into the countryside to the head of a bush road. From there he walked some 100 km (62 miles) alone north through a series of remote villages towards Nigeria.

“There was no time to carry food. I had one change of clothes but I lost that.”

He slept on strangers’ floors and arrived in Nigeria a week later, where he fell ill with malaria. He said NGOs on the border had estimated an extra 1,000-odd people had arrived since the weekend.

The UNHCR is offering provisions like mosquito nets and is helping refugees find housing. So far there is no central camp for refugees and they rely on the hospitality of Nigerians for room and board.

For David, it beats going home. Asked if he planned to return, he said: “Go home to where? Go home to be killed? To go to jail without trial? I can only go back once this is resolved.”

Source: VOA