US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says many of his past remarks against women were made “for the purpose of entertainment.” The billionaire businessman from New York has been under attack over his disparaging comments on immigrants, Muslims, and women. On Wednesday, he was asked in an interview if he could understand why parents of young girls are not comfortable about his history of making crude remarks.

“A lot of that was done for the purpose of entertainment, there’s nobody that has more respect for women than I do,” Trump said in response. “Are you trying to tone it down now?” the host asked the billionaire politician. “It’s not a question of trying, it’s very easy,” Trump said.

In recent weeks, Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, has increased her attacks on the real estate tycoon because of his behavior toward women. During the first presidential debate last week, Clinton slammed Trump for his remarks about a former Miss Universe, whom he had ridiculed for gaining weight in 1996.

Trump’s campaign has been marred by his insulting remarks against minorities in the US. His comments include 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.

Clinton leads; Trump facing must-win debate

Meanwhile, Clinton has emerged from the first presidential debate with a good lead over Trump in the race for the White House. According to the results of the Fairleigh Dickinson University survey released Wednesday, the former secretary of state has 50 points and the New York billionaire 40 percent among likely voters.

The poll comes days after the first presidential debate between the two candidates on September 26, which became the most-watched presidential face-off in the history of US elections.

During the fiery face-off, Clinton accused Trump of racism, sexism and tax avoidance, putting him on the defensive for much of the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

Many observers now say Trump must win at the second presidential debate on Sunday if he is to regain the momentum in the race.

Presstv

Antonio Guterres will be the next Secretary-General of the United Nations, following a vote by the Security Council to choose the organisation’s new leader.

Mr Guterres, 66, former prime minister of Portugal and head of the UN refugee agency, will take over from Ban Ki-moon in January. Ban has led the UN for the past 10 years. The decision was made in a straw poll, held in New York on Wednesday morning.

Mr Guterres’s candidacy was not vetoed by any of the permanent five members of the Security Council. It will now be formally approved by the General Assembly. The Portuguese politician said he was “honoured and happy.”

Culled from The Telegraph

A report says the US Internet giant Yahoo scanned hundreds of millions of users’ emails in 2015 at the request of US intelligence agencies. According to the report published by Reuters on Tuesday, the company secretly built a custom software program last year to search all users’ incoming emails for specific information requested by US intelligence officials.

Several former employees of the Internet company said the scanning of Yahoo Mail accounts was at the behest of the National Security Agency (NSA) or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). “The request to search Yahoo Mail accounts came in the form of a classified edict sent to the company’s legal team,” they noted. The company did not reject the report and without providing any further details, said, “Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States.”

Some experts said the move represents the first case in which a US Internet company agrees to a spy agency’s demand to search all arriving messages. “It is deeply disappointing that Yahoo declined to challenge this sweeping surveillance order, because customers are counting on technology companies to stand up to novel spying demands in court,” Patrick Toomey, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

In a separate incident last month, Yahoo said “state-sponsored” hackers had gained access to 500 million customer accounts in 2014. On several occasions, Internet companies have complained that the US government tried to force them to give away their users’ information. Yahoo reported earlier this year that some 200 million accounts may have been accessed and that hacked data was being offered for sale online.

The users of Yahoo’s online services were urged to review accounts for suspicious activity. They were also asked to change passwords. The NSA has previously come under fire for spying on Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications.  Countless leaks by American whistleblower Edward Snowden have detailed the highly sophisticated tools used by the NSA to collect data in bulk from unsuspecting people, including American citizens.

Presstv

The Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang has received the visiting British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Director for Africa, Neil Wigan.

Philemon Yang and his British guest reviewed relations between Cameroon and the Commonwealth. Neil Wigan reportedly reassured Cameroon of Britain’s support to the country, in spite of her exit from the European Union.

The British diplomat who is on a working visit to Cameroon is expected to launch the expansion of the business coalition against corruption. Neil Wigan had served as British ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

CRTV

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

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.

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

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.

“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

President Paul Biya has chosen not to make the trip to Jerusalem for the funeral of Shimon Peres, although he is currently in Europe. Biya, reported a sister publication, Cameroon-info.net has decided that Lejeune Mbella

Mbella, the Minister of External Relations should represent him in Israel. The Republic of Cameroon has maintained close relations with Israel for many years. After taking the decision to entrust his personal protection to the Israelis following the failed coup of 1984, Paul Biya has received the late Shimon Peres several times in Yaounde.

Shimon Peres, former Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner seen by some as a war criminal, died Wednesday, September 28, 2016 as the result of a stroke at the age of 93. Forty Heads of State and Government are expected to participate at his funeral scheduled for this Friday in Jerusalem.

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN

Protests have erupted in the US state of California following the fatal shooting of another unarmed black man by police as tensions grow over police violence across the country. Demonstrators gathered in El Cajon on Wednesday to condemn the police shooting of 38-year-old Alfred Olango who was reportedly mentally ill.

The Ugandan-born man was killed by officers on Tuesday after police received a report about a man acting erratically and walking in traffic.   The rally continued into the night with hundreds of people marching from the shooting scene to El Cajon City Hall and back again, shouting Olango’s name, insulting police and disrupting traffic.

Civil rights activists and several hundred protesters gathered outside the police department during the day, chanting “murder,” “justice for Alfred Olango” and “black lives matter.” The protesters demanded the US Justice Department to investigate the fatal police shooting.

“We are not going to stop until we get justice,” the Reverend Shane Harris, president of the National Action Network’s San Diego chapter, said at the demonstration. “We do not trust local prosecutors to investigate local police.”

A video taken moments after the shooting and posted on social media shows Olango‘s sister crying in anguish, “Oh my God. You killed my brother. I just called for help and … you killed him.” The police killing came days after two African American men were killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, sparking protests against US police brutality.

A state of emergency and curfew were imposed by authorities to quell unrest in Charlotte. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis appealed for calm. “I implore the community to be patient with us, work with us, look at the facts at hand before making any judgment,” he said.

Presstv

The United States Department of Defence has awarded Cessna a $24 million contract to supply six Caravan aircraft for Cameroon, Chad and the Philippines. They will be configured for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). This follows two contracts in May this year covering the modification of Caravans to ISR configuration for Cameroon, Chad, Niger and the Philippines.

The US Department of Defence on 21 September said Cessna will provide six Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX aircraft, three spare Pratt & Whitney PT6A-140 engines, and aircraft spares and ground handling equipment to the US Africa Command and Pacific Command areas of responsibility in support of counterterrorism measures in Chad, Cameroon, and the Philippines.

Work is expected to be complete by 30 September 2017. Under the May 2016 contracts, L-3 Communications Corporation – Communication Systems West was awarded a $14 185 927 contract for ISR equipment and spares. North American Surveillance Systems of Titusville, Florida, was awarded $39 983 647 for the modification of the aircraft and integration of ISR capabilities, together with training and field support. Financing for both contracts came from Fiscal Year 2016 counter-terrorism partnership funds.

The contract announcements did not indicate how many aircraft each country would be getting, but it now appears Cameroon and Chad will each receive two. The US military in September 2014 awarded Cessna a $13.67 million contract to provide three Grand Caravan EX aircraft to Niger, Kenya and Mauritania in support of counter-terrorism operations, but it is believed this contract is unrelated to the most recent ones. L-3 Communications Systems West also received a $31.2 million contract in 2014 to add intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to the three Cessna 208Bs.

The United States has donated a number of Caravans to African countries in support of peacekeeping and counter-terror operations. The Niger Air Force received two donated Cessna 208Bs in July 2013, but configured for transport tasks. In June 2014 the US government donated two new Caravans to the Mauritania Islamic Air Force to boost its capacity to conduct patrols to counter maritime crimes and regional terrorist groups.

Another recipient of Caravans from the United States is Uganda, which received two aircraft on 16 March 2015, to support the Ugandan contingent battling al Shabaab militants in Somalia. The aircraft, worth $15 million including spare parts and training, were donated by the US Department of Defence.

Culled from Defenseweb