US Senators engaged in investigating President Donald Trump’s possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign and transition are locked in a battle for more information.

US Senate’s Judiciary and Intelligence committees are conducting separate probes to also investigate Russia’s alleged interference in the November vote as well as Trump’s dismissal of James Comey as he was heading a probe into the matter at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

With more revelations and leaks coming out on a daily basis, the senators are fighting for the same information.

So far, they have even failed to bring Comey (pictured below) in for a hearing.

“We’re trying to get [Comey] before the Senate Judiciary Committee but we haven’t had any luck,” the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, told reporters during a conference call. “Of course we could subpoena him but we don’t want to make that move until we have to.”

The committee, which oversees the FBI investigation, has called on the bureau to hand over Comey’s memos regarding the matter but to no avail this far.

“I think we perhaps need to do more than just invite [Comey]. I think it’s important that he come before the oversight committee … and at least do us the courtesy of appearing and that we should be able to look at his material and ask questions about them,” said the committee’s ranking member, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein (pictured below).

According to Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the US House Oversight Committee, “the FBI is withholding those documents, citing to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special prosecutor.”

After dismissing Comey, Trump assigned the former head of the FBI as special prosecutor earlier this month. Both the president and the Kremlin have denied allegations of collusion and interference.

Source: Presstv

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says talks on climate change in a summit in Italy of the seven wealthy nations, known as the G7, were not successful as US President Donald Trump calls for more time to announce his position on the issue and whether Washington would remain committed to the landmark Paris Accord.

Merkel said on Saturday that Washington’s partners in the G7 all remained in the dark about Trump’s intention on climate change, adding that the debate at the summit in Sicily was “very unsatisfactory.” “Here we have a situation of six against one, meaning there is still no sign of whether the US will remain in the Paris accord or not,” Merkel said, adding, “The whole discussion on the topic of climate was very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory.”

The German chancellor, who spoke to reporters in Sicily after the summit, said the discussion on climate change was quite different than the one that happened on trade. She said the G7 member states clearly articulated that they would reject protectionism in trade policies. However, Merkel said the climate debate could not yield similar results as six governments agreed to endorse the Paris Agreement but Trump tweeted that he will decide next week.

“I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!” Trump tweeted. The final declaration of the G7 summit also reflected the differences between the United States and other members on the issue. “The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” said the statement, adding that other members would “swiftly” begin to implement the Paris Agreement, which they said would be to the benefit of developing countries.

Trump had on several occasions during his presidential campaign criticized the accord, saying it could harm jobs inside the United States while being to the favor of countries such as China. The US president had even branded the agreement, which obliges parties to cut back on carbon emissions, a Chinese hoax. Like many other agreements signed under the administration of former US President Barack Obama, Trump has vowed that he would revise Washington’s commitments under the deals to ensure US interests are protected.

Source: Presstv

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI chief James Comey amounts to “obstruction of justice” and will lead to his “impeachment.”

Speaking to graduates at her alma mater of Wellesely College on Friday, Clinton, Trump’s major rival in the 2016 presidential election, said Comey’s dismissal was a step towards authoritarianism.

“When people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society,” she warned. “That is not hyperbole; it is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done.”

She then drew a parallel between Trump and former US President Richard Nixon, wrongly claiming that the latter was impeached over the Watergate scandal. This is while Nixon resigned from office after firing a special prosecutor overseeing the case.

“We were furious about the past presidential election, of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice, after firing the person running the investigation into him at the department of justice,” she said during the commencement speech. Trump fired Comey earlier this month, plunging the White House into chaos.

The former FBI director has been blamed for Hillary’s loss. He has also been accused of plotting against President Trump. Prior to the November 8 vote, Comey led a controversial probe into Clinton’s use of a personal server to exchange government emails while she was secretary of state.

After the election, he began investigating Trump’s alleged ties to Russia as well as a series of cyber attacks against Clinton’s campaign, which Democrats claimed were conducted by Russian hackers. Various administration officials like Vice President Mike Pence have tried to downplay the decision and deny its ties with the Russia probe.

However, Trump himself admitted that the “Russian thing” was indeed one of the reasons he took the decision.

Bill Clinton’s impeachment

Ironically, Hillary’s own husband, former US President Bill Clinton, is one of the only two US heads of state to have ever been impeached.

In fact, Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment was based on two charges of perjury and “obstruction of justice,” the very same reason Hillary thinks Trump will be impeached for.

The charges against the then-president stemmed from his extramarital affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Culled from Presstv

President Paul BIYA has met with Cristina RIVERO De THEISEN at the Unity Palace. The international consultant and lobbyist met the 84 year old dictator on the 24 May 2017.

Speaking after the meeting, Cristina RIVERO de THEISEN said it was a privilege for her to be received by the Head of State. She also hinted that a pathway has been established to woo major investors to Cameroon.

A well placed at the presidency of the republic hinted that Etoudi was running short of cash and that Biya is seeking foreign funding.

Camcordnews Desk

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres takes concrete steps on safety of journalists issue, setting up a channel for communication in emergency cases and to better coordinate UN bodies. The office of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided to establish a direct and continuing channel of communication with a coalition of press freedom organizations on journalism safety. Guterres made this decision following a February 2017 meeting with Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières – RSF), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), on behalf of the #ProtectJournalists coalition. The Secretary-General’s decision comes at a particularly dangerous period for journalists in many countries.

RSF, CPJ, and WAN-IFRA have been campaigning through the #ProtectJournalists campaign for the creation of a new position in the UN in order to implement international law regarding journalists’ safety. The #ProtectJournalists coalition has been in a dialogue with the Secretary-General’s senior staff to ensure that this direct communication channel will allow mobilization at the highest levels of the UN system to respond to emergency cases, and to ensure better coordination among the UN agencies, funds, and programs, as recommended by the UN Plan of Action.

“Secretary-General Guterres told us that he wanted to take immediate action to improve the safety of journalists on the ground and that his closest team will work towards this goal. In a second time, he will continue to consider our initial recommendation to appoint a UN Special Representative for the safety of journalists supported by a worldwide coalition of NGOs, media outlets, journalists and prominent public figures,” said RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire. “We deeply appreciate his commitment on this topic, and the decision he has already taken. The world’s major problems, from environmental issues to extremist violence, cannot be resolved without the work of journalists.”

“At a time of unprecedented threats to journalists around the world, we are grateful for the commitments made by the Secretary General to continue to speak out about the importance of the press around the world and to open a permanent channel of communication around emergency cases,” said Joel Simon, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

RSF and members of the #ProtectJournalists coalition will put in place a process to gather and relay emergency cases directly to the UN Secretariat. In the coming weeks, RSF will chair a consultation including international and local press freedom organizations to consider the best process for referring cases, so that cases can be referred to the Secretary-General as soon as possible.

Five hundred and eighty journalists and media assistants have been killed worldwide since the adoption of the UN Plan of Action in 2012, according to RSF research. Impunity remains the norm, with full justice in only three percent of journalist murders in the past decade, according to CPJ analysis.

Pauline ADES-MEVEL

REPORTERS SANS FRONTIÈRES/ REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Two peacekeepers were killed and a third wounded on Tuesday in an ambush in restive northern Mali, the nation’s UN mission said. The troops were patrolling on foot near Aguelhok, which is close to the border with Algeria, when they were attacked, the mission said in a statement.

A military source told AFP that the soldiers belonged to Chad’s contingent. Stationed in Mali since July 2013, MINUSMA has just over 12,000 military and police personnel working on what is considered the UN’s most dangerous active peacekeeping deployment.

The attack was the latest in “a wave of violence in the last weeks,” MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif was quoted in the statement as saying. A UN peacekeeper from Liberia was killed and nine others injured early this month in a rocket and mortar attack near Timbuktu.

The attack, like many others in the last weeks, was claimed by a powerful extremist alliance (GSIM), a fusion of three Malian extremist groups with previous Al-Qaeda links. It is headed by Malian extremist Iyad Ag Ghaly, a former leader of Ansar Dine.

Mali’s north came under attack from extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012 who hijacked an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising. Though the extremists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013, extremist groups continue to mount attacks on civilians and security forces in the arid remote north.

(Source: AFP)

Turkey has opened the trials of 221 suspected organizers of a failed July 2016 coup against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The hearings began at the Sincan prison complex near the capital, Ankara, on Monday. The prime suspects are alleged members of the so-called Peace at Home Council, a group on whose behalf a coup declaration was read on state television on July 15 last year.

They include Gen. Akin Ozturk, a former air force commander. He was transferred to the courtroom amid high security. A crowd of jeering Erdogan supporters reportedly called for him to be executed as he was being transferred past them.

Other defendants include US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, a former Erdogan aide, whom Erdogan accuses of masterminding the putsch. Gulen has denied the accusation. Aside from Gulen, eight other defendants will be tried in absentia.

Source: Presstv

Thousands of Yemenis have rallied in the port city of Aden in support of a so-called autonomous body set up to rule the south by officials of ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.  Protesters, who had reached the southwestern city from several southern provinces, chanted, “Independence is our objective,” the Middle East Eye news portal reported.

The autonomous body to manage the war-wracked country’s south was launched by Hadi’s governor for Yemen’s port city of Aden after he was fired by the Saudi-backed former president.  Hadi sacked Maj. Gen. Aidarous al-Zubaidi over his perceived close ties with the United Arab Emirates after accusing the UAE of acting “like an occupation power in Yemen rather than a force of liberation.”

The autonomous body gathers 26 members, including the governors of five southern provinces and another Hadi minister. It has proclaimed that it aims to “run the southern provinces” and “represent them inside and outside” the country.

Hadi’s loyalists have accused the men of setting up secret liason with the Emirates, buying arms from it and forming military units. Yemen’s Houthi movement has also rejected the new council, calling it a “threat to the territorial unity of the Yemeni republic,” and a part of a “colonial plot.”

Aden has been racked by armed clashes, explosions and assassinations since Houthi fighters were pushed out of the city in July 2015 by Saudi-backed militants. Al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorists are now audaciously driving their armed vehicles around the city, passing checkpoints set up by Hadi loyalists.

The United Arab Emirates has a strong military presence in the area as part of a Saudi-led coalition which has been pommeling Yemen for more than two years now in order to return Hadi to power and dislodge Houthis and their allies from their areas of control.

Aden has been grappling with a spread of arms, where arms possession is unprecedented, especially among young people.  Residents in the city have complained that armed groups usually clash with one another in the streets and go unpunished when they kill civilians.

Source: Presstv

Some 5,000 refugees bound for Italy have been rescued in waters off the coast of Libya between Thursday and Saturday morning by Italian and Libyan coastguards, statements from both countries say.

Around 2,900 people were rescued Thursday, 2,300 of whom were found in international waters and taken to Italy, while 580 picked up in Libyan waters were returned to the North African country.

Through Friday until Saturday morning, coastguards rescued another 2,100 refugees packed in 17 vessels, but found the body of one man who drowned, the Italian coastguard said.

The number of refugees arriving in Italy has soared this year by more than 30 percent in comparison with the same period last year, with 46,000 people arriving so far.

But of every 39 refugees, who survive the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, one dies, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, adding that 1,244 refugees were known to have died so far this year.

(Source: AFP)

Ousted FBI Director James Comey has agreed to testify in an “open session” of the Senate Intelligence Committee to answer questions on the investigation into possible links between President Donald Trump’s election campaign and Russia.

The committee said in a statement late on Friday that it planned to schedule the hearing for some time after Memorial Day. “The committee looks forward to receiving testimony from the former director on his role in the development of the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections,” said Senator Richard Burr, the committee chairman.

“I am hopeful that he will clarify for the American people recent events that have been broadly reported in the media,” the North Carolina Republican added. Trump fired Comey in a surprise move last week, triggering accusations that the president obstructed justice by seeking to thwart an ongoing FBI probe about alleged Russian interference in last November’s election. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating the alleged meddling by Moscow and any possible links between Russian officials and the Trump team.

Senator Mark Warner, the committee’s vice chairman, said he hoped Comey’s testimony would “shed light on issues critical” to the investigation. “Director Comey served his country with honor for many years, and he deserves an opportunity to tell his story. Moreover, the American people deserve an opportunity to hear it,” the Virginia Democrat said.

The US Justice Department appointed a special counsel to oversee the probe, potentially limiting the Congress’s ability to look into the matter separately. There is concern that the counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, would object to Comey speaking in public about an ongoing probe.

Trump has condemned the investigation as the “greatest witch hunt” in the US history. Last week, the president warned Comey against leaking information to the media. “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press,” he tweeted on May 12.

 The latest twist in the controversy came on Friday when The New York Times reported that Trump allegedly told senior Russian officials visiting the White House that Comey was a “nut job” and that his termination relieved “great pressure.”

Source: Presstv