Spain’s chief public prosecutor has refused to rule out the arrest of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for pushing ahead with an independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid.

“Legally the conditions may be met” for Puigdemont’s arrest, Jose Manuel Maza said during an interview with radio Onda Cero. “It’s a decision that is possible but we have not considered that we should take it,” he added.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly said that the referendum slated for October 1 — which his conservative party insists is illegal and unconstitutional — will not take place, and the legislation underpinning the vote has already been suspended by Spain’s Constitutional Court.

Spanish prosecutors have warned that officials engaged in any preparations for the plebiscite could be charged with civil disobedience, abuse of office and misuse of public funds.

Maza said Puigdemont could be arrested for misuse of public funds, as this crime carries a jail sentence.

Prosecutors have also told police to investigate any efforts to promote the referendum and ordered a criminal investigation of over 700 Catalan mayors who have pledged to cooperate with the vote.

Police on Monday summoned 17 people for allegedly developing web platforms dedicated to the banned referendum.

Puigdemont, a former journalist and provincial mayor, regularly tweets links to the websites, which tell Catalans where they can vote in the referendum. He has said he is ready to go to prison rather than give up his push for independence.

Key members of the team organizing the vote have been put under official investigation for disobedience, malfeasance and embezzlement of public funds. Organizers of protests last week have been threatened with charges of sedition.

And police have seized close to ten million ballot papers, as well as other items destined for the vote. But Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has vowed to go ahead with the referendum.

If the “yes” side wins it has said it would declare independence within days for the wealthy northeastern region of Spain, home to about 7.5 million people.

Polls show Catalans are split on the issue of independence, but a large majority want to vote in a legitimate referendum to settle the matter.

(Source: AFP)

The long-simmering crisis in Southern Cameroons has taken a dangerous turn with small explosions targeting local security officials, even as ongoing protests become increasingly vociferous.

Renewed mass protests broke out early morning on Sept. 22, (Friday), in major towns and villages across the north west and south west. The aggrieved population took to the streets with placards, whistles and flags of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia; a country they clamor to create when they secede from the present day Republic of Cameroon.

Security forces responded with bullets and teargas, injuring some protesters in Santa and Ekona in the North West and South West Regions. However, by press time, the reprisals had not deterred protesters as they moved to public places, hoisting blue-white flags and seeking to meet with administrative and traditional authorities.

 The protesters poured out on the streets hours to the time president Paul Biya was scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly. Other Anglophone protesters put up similar shows at the UN headquarters in New York. The civil disobedience call was made by the Ambazonia Governing Council and amplified by Anglophone activists in the diaspora, as a build up to Oct. 1, the day the pro-secessionist groups intend to restore their independence.

The crisis is escalating after president Biya granted amnesty to some Anglophones who were arrested and detained for months in connection to violence in the country’s English speaking regions. But many, including Mancho Bibixy still remain incarcerated. This provoked calls for the unconditional release of all detainees and further radicalsed agitators.

But, as predicted by the International Crisis Group in August, the crisis took a different twist in early September as arms became involved.

The latest of the bombings was on Wednesday morning Sept. 21, when an IED controlled from a mobile phone was activated at Hospital Roundabout in Bamenda. Three police officers were seriously injured. Another failed explosion was recorded at a petroleum depot in the major city of Douala. On Sept. 11, improvised explosive device targeting security agents on patrol was activated at Mobil Nkwen in the city of Bamenda. Five days later, another IED damaged a dormitory at Sacred Heart College Mankon, still in Bamenda, but no human loss was recorded.

Though it is yet to be established whether it is connected to the Anglophone crisis. The Ambazonia Defense Forces, the armed faction of a group of secessionist movements, has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.

The latest incident has been described as “an act of terrorism” by a government spokesperson. Cameroon’s current difficulties stem back to its pre-independence history when it was formed by combining a region that was colonized by the British with the larger region run by the French. The country’s government, education, and legal systems are dominated by the larger French-speaking region. But in recent years tensions have mounted as people from the Anglophone regions have complained about being marginalized by the Francophone-led establishment. The Anglophone regions account for just under 20% of the Cameroon’s 23 million population.

Culled from Quartz Media

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says US President Donald Trump’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea is wrong, citing economic pressure and diplomacy as the only “appropriate” ways to resolve the conflict.

“I am against such threats,” Merkel told the Deutsche Welle channel. “We consider any form of military solution as totally inappropriate and we insist on a diplomatic solution.”

“From my point of view sanctions and their implementation are the right answer. But I consider everything else concerning North Korea as wrong,” she added. “And that is why we clearly disagree with the US president.”

The German chancellor made the remarks in reaction to Trump’s debut speech at the United Nations General Assembly, where he said Tuesday that the US was ready to destroy the North to resolve the ongoing standoff over the country’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program.

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” he said.

“It is time for North Korea to realize that its denuclearization is its only responsible future,” he added.

The Trump administration has been pushing for greater international pressure on North Korea through the UN and by pressuring China, Pyongyang’s main trade ally.

The pressure peaked in early September, when the North announced that it had successfully exploded a hydrogen bomb, its sixth overall thermonuclear test.

The UN Security Council adopted new sanctions against the North as a result, a move that Pyongyang warned would not go unanswered.

Germany’s role

Merkel said in her interview that Germany’s strong ties China, Japan, South Korea and the United States puts it among the few countries that could actually help resolve the North Korea crisis.

“Even if this conflict is far away from Germany, it is one that also affects us,” Merkel said. “That is why I am prepared, as is the foreign minister, [Sigmar Gabriel], to assume responsibility here.”

Gabriel told Monday’s edition of the Bild daily that the world had to wait for the sanctions against North Korea to work.

He also noted that military action was not going to succeed and “a security guarantee other than the nuclear bomb” was needed.

Source: Presstv

French Cameroun media houses are worried about the deliberate silence maintained by the leaders of the outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Civil Consortium. Several Francophone newspapers have questioned the “silence of the lamb” attitude adopted by Dr. Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho and Dr. Neba Fontem Neba including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine.
A sea of Francophone tabloids have observed that ever since their release, the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have not issued any statement or press release even on social networks. Le Jour, Cameoon Info.Net and Nouvelle Expression are among the French Cameroun publications that have openly targeted the leaders of the Consortium.

We learned Dr. Fontem Neba blatantly refused saying a word during a meeting organized at the Secretariat for Defense prior to their release by French Cameroun surrogate, Brigadier General Elokobi Daniel Njock.

French Cameroun radio and television stations have also claimed that the Anglophone leaders including Justice Ayah Paul have are not willing to grant any interview with the press. The media houses in La Republique are now reporting that the leaders of the Consortium had promised while in detention that they were willing to play the role of mediators in the Southern Cameroons crisis. “Their silence raises questions,” noted La Nouvelle Expression.

At the time of filing this report, a well-placed source hinted Cameroon Concord News that the Francophone regime was putting pressure on Dr. Barrister Agbor Nkongho to issue a statement calling for the resumptions of schools in Southern Cameroons.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump, says she will not run for president again although she is “not done with politics.”

The 2016 Democratic nominee, whose new book “What Happened” is set to be published on Tuesday, appeared on CBS on Sunday to announce that she would not seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“I am done with being a candidate,” said the former secretary of state before the release of her 2016 campaign memoir. “But I am not done with politics because I literally believe that our country’s future is at stake.”

In the 2016 presidential election, the New York billionaire won the electoral college vote necessary to become the president despite losing the popular vote to Clinton by 2.9 million votes.

‘It hurts’

The 69-year-old politician undermined Trump’s presidency, citing his former job as a reality TV star.

“We have a reality show that leads to the election of a president. He ends up in the Oval Office. He says, ‘Boy, it’s so much harder than I thought it would be. This is really tough. I had no idea,’” she said. “Well, yeah, because it’s not a show. It’s real. It’s reality, for sure.”

Clinton further asserted that she had moved on from her 2016 election loss, yet acknowledging that it still “hurts.”

“I am good,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I am complacent or resolved about what happened. It still is very painful. It hurts a lot.”

‘Enormous letdown’

The former first lady, who took part in the new president’s inauguration ceremony after her failure, described the event “like an out-of-body experience,” stating that his speech was a “cry from the white nationalist gut.”

“But I’m a former first lady, and former presidents and first ladies show up,” Clinton said. “It’s part of the demonstration of the continuity of our government. And so there I was, on the platform, you know, feeling like an out-of-body experience. And then his speech, which was a cry from the white nationalist gut.”

Elaborating on her loss, she added, “I understood that there were many Americans who, because of the financial crash, there was anger. And there was resentment. I knew that. But I believed that it was my responsibility to try to offer answers to it, not to fan it. I think, Jane, that it was a mistake because a lot of people didn’t want to hear my plans. They wanted me to share their anger. And I should’ve done a better job of demonstrating ‘I get it.'”

The former candidate also cited release of a 2005 tape, in which Trump is heard bragging about sexually abusing women. “Trump was behaving in a deplorable manner,” she said. “There were a large number of people who didn’t care.”

The former secretary of state also recalled the moment she came to terms with her loss. “I just felt this enormous letdown, just kind of loss of feeling and direction and sadness,” Clinton said. “It was a very hard transition. I really struggled. I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t think. I was just gob-smacked, wiped out.”

Source: Presstv

French Cameroun dictator, Paul BIYA has granted a farewell audience to the outgoing U.S. Ambassador – Michael Stephen Hoza. Both personalities met at the Unity Palace on Wednesday 6 September 2017.

Speaking to reporters after the audience, Ambassador Stephen Hoza emphasised that the U.S. will prolong its partnership with Cameroon – “a country with a bright future”.

Stephen Hoza noted that he was “proud to say that the United States and Cameroon broadened cooperation in numerous areas, such as in security, politics, economics, health, education, and the environment- issues that were never felt by the local population.

The U.S. Diplomat’s three-year stay in Cameroon significantly strengthened bilateral relations with CPDM sources claiming U.S. commercial investment rose from approximately US$300 million to over US$2 billion.

In his normal pro government pattern, Ambassador Stephen Hoza commended President Paul BIYA’s consolidation of peace and stability, which are keys to the attainment of an emerging economy. He also underlined the Head of State’s leadership in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorist group, piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, and his handling of the refugee crisis in the Central African Republic.

Culled from the Presidency of the Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to comment on domestic American politics and to criticize his US counterpart, taking a jab at Donald Trump by saying “He is not my bride, and I’m not his groom.”

Putin made the remarks at a news conference on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in China on Tuesday, answering a question whether the Russian leader was “disappointed” in Trump and in the improvement of Moscow-Washington relations amid a simmering diplomatic feud between the two countries.

Dismissing the question as “very naive,” Putin chastised the reporter and said, “He is not my bride, neither am I his bride or groom,” referring to the US president.

“Trump is guided by the national interests of his country, and I by mine. I very much hope that we will be able, as the current US president has said, to reach some compromise in resolving bilateral and international problems,” the Russian president added.

Putin also declined to comment on the prospect of the US president being impeached, saying it would be “absolutely wrong” to discuss US domestic politics.

During the conference, the Russian president censured as “uncivil,” the recent US decision to expel Russian diplomats from a consulate in San Francisco with just two days’ notice.

“The Americans had the right to reduce the number of our diplomatic offices. It is another matter altogether that they have done this in way that was absolutely uncivil. This does not do reflect well on our American partners,” he said.

“It is difficult to talk to people who confuse Austria and Australia. But there is nothing we can do about this; this is the level of political culture among part of the American establishment,” Putin noted.

The Russian president further called the shuttering of some Russian diplomatic facilities in the US “an obvious violation of property rights” and said that, “for starters,” he would instruct the Foreign Ministry to challenge the decision in court.

Ties between US and Russia have deteriorated especially since the US intelligence community concluded that Russia meddled in last year’s election to help Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. The Kremlin has verily dismissed the allegations of interference in the US elections.

In December 2016, then US president Barack Obama ordered out 35 Russian diplomats and closed down two embassy summer houses over reports of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Putin on Ukrainian conflict

At the Tuesday conference, Putin also warned the US against supplying weapons to Kiev, arguing that the decision would fuel the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Putin said arming Ukraine will possibly prompt pro-Russia forces to expand their campaign, stressing that the move would not change the situation and would only add to the number of casualties.

“The delivery of weapons to a conflict zone doesn’t help peacekeeping efforts, but only worsens the situation,” he said. “Such a decision would not change the situation but the number of casualties could increase.”

The Russian president expressed alarm that the self-declared republics in eastern Ukraine have enough weapons to manage any possible war with Ukraine.

Putin also said he would submit a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council and propose the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine.

Conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine after people in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for unification with Russia in March 2014. The West brands the unification as annexation of the territory by Russia. The US and its allies in Europe also accuse Russia of having a major hand in the crisis in eastern Ukraine, an allegation denied by Moscow.

The crisis has left over 10,000 people dead and more than a million others displaced, according to the United Nations.

In September 2014, the government in Kiev and the pro-Russia forces signed a ceasefire agreement in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in a bid to halt the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern regions, collectively known as the Donbass.

The warring sides also inked another truce deal, dubbed Minsk II, in February 2015 under the supervision of Russia, Germany, and France. Since then, however, sporadic fighting has occurred, with the parties blaming each other for initiating the violations.

Culled from Presstv

Moscow has blasted Washington’s recent crackdown on its diplomatic facilities on US soil as “state hooliganism.” Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in China, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, “I am inclined to call what is happening state hooliganism.”

Washington seized control over three Russian diplomatic posts in the US on Saturday amid strong protests by Moscow. The US move to shut down Russia’s consulate post in San Francisco along with two trade posts in Washington and New York came in retaliation for Moscow’s last month decision to significantly reduce American diplomatic staff in Russia.

Russia slammed Washington’s crackdown on its diplomatic missions as a violation of international law. The Russian Foreign Ministry also summoned a US diplomat in Moscow to protest Washington’s measures. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would respond harshly to any US measure designed to hurt his country.

The diplomatic standoff between the two sides first broke out last December, when the outgoing Washington administration expelled 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for yet unsubstantiated Russian interference in the US electoral process.

Moscow did not respond in kind back then, reportedly for having received signals that the incoming administration of President Donald Trump would be more favorable towards Russia.

While Trump himself has been perceived as open toward warmer relations with Russia, the US Congress slapped more bans on Russia over the alleged election interference, prompting Moscow to order a significant cut in the number of US diplomatic staff last month.

Source: Presstv

US Senator John McCain has denounced President Donald Trump’s lack of experience, saying members of Congress will cooperate with the president whenever possible but they are “not his subordinates.”

“We must respect his authority and constitutional responsibilities,” the Arizona Republican said during an international economic and policy conference in Lake Como, Italy.

“We must, where we can, cooperate with him. But we are not his subordinates. We don’t answer to him. We answer to the American people,” he stressed.

McCain, a fierce critic of President Trump, emphasized the importance of Congress as a check on presidential power, adding, “We should value our identity as members of Congress more than our partisan affiliation.”

McCain, who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, further said that Trump’s rhetoric and lack of experience have thrown the country’s relationships with foreign allies into doubt.

“I realize that I come to Italy at a time when many are questioning whether America is still committed to remaining engaged in the world, to upholding our traditional alliances, and standing up for the values we share,” McCain said.

“I also realize — and there is no point in avoiding a little straight talk here — that this doubt has much to do with some of the actions and statements of our president.”

McCain said there is a “real debate” in the United States about the role it must play internationally and that the future of the world “will turn, to a large extent, on how this debate in America is resolved.”

The remarks echoed a speech McCain made back in May in Australia, where he warned that Trump had “unsettled America’s friends.”

Trump has worried many traditional US allies by his controversial statements on foreign policy matters and US alliances with other countries. The president has also isolated the United States by pulling the country from the Paris Climate Accord.

Source: Presstv