FEBRUARY 18 2013 PROGRAMME

NEWS

Mali sets 7 July election date

Mali will hold nationwide presidential elections on 7 July, the interim government's territorial administration minister has announced.

It would be a key step to stabilising Mali following the intervention of French troops to oust Islamist fighters from the north of the country, he said.

Legislative elections will follow on 21 July, along with a presidential run-off if required.

Thousands of troops from France and African nations are currently in Mali.

Elections were due in Mali in April 2012, but a coup the month before threw the country into disarray.

Foreign workers abducted in Bauchi state

Seven foreign workers have been seized and a security guard shot dead by gunmen who attacked a construction company site in northern Nigeria, officials say.

One of the workers seized was Italian, one was Greek and two others Lebanese.

But UK officials could not confirm a report that another was British.

No-one has admitted the abductions but the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has staged a series of attacks in northern Nigeria.

A security guard was killed as the attackers targeted the workers' camp at Jama'are in Bauchi state.

Correspondents say it is the biggest kidnapping in northern Nigeria in recent times.

Foreigners held in Libya on suspicion of proselytizing

Four foreign nationals have been arrested in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on suspicion of being Christian missionaries, officials say.

A spokesman for Preventative Security said they were under investigation for printing and distributing tens of thousands of books about Christianity.

Proselytising was forbidden in the predominantly Muslim country, he added.

Those arrested were an Egyptian, a South African, a South Korean and a Swede with joint US citizenship.

Brahimi urges Syria peace talks at UN

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League joint envoy, has called for talks between the Syrian opposition and an "acceptable delegation" from the Damascus government on a political solution to the country's 23-month-old civil war.

In a joint press conference in Cairo with Nabil El-Araby, the Arab League secretary-general, Brahimi said on Sunday that negotiations could begin on UN premises. He gave no specific location.

The initiative of opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib, which calls for talks with any Syrian representative not directly involved in repression, "has opened the door and challenged the Syrian government to live up to what it has been continuously saying, that it is ready for dialogue and a peaceful solution", Brahimi said.

Khatib, the head of the Syrian National Coalition, offered last week to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's ceremonial deputy, Farouq al-Sharaa, on a political transition in which Assad would be given safe passage to go into exile.


COMMENTARIES:

1) INSECURITY/ TERRORISM TODAY- CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN, IRAQ AND NIGERIA.
2) THE BAUCHI KIDNAP
3) ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND JOB CREATION
4) LOCAL POLITICS- THE MERGER OF OPPOSITION PARTIES AND THE LIKELIHOOD OF SUCCESS

 

 

FEB 11th 2013 PROGRAMME

NEWS:

Heavy gunfire in northern Mali town of Gao

Malian troops and suspected Islamist militants are exchanging heavy gunfire on the streets of Gao in northern Mali.

it comes a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a checkpoint at a northern entrance to the town - the second such attack in two days.
Gao was retaken just over two weeks ago by French and Malian forces, who supposedly drove out the Islamists.
Security had been tightened in the wake of the suicide attacks, with military patrols stepped up and checkpoints put in place.
An armed rebel group, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, has claimed responsibility for an attack on the city of Gao in northern Mali and a suicide bombing the day before.

Tunisia President Marzouki's CPR 'to withdraw ministers'

The secular party of Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki says its ministers will leave the Islamist-led government.

A CPR party leader said its demands that two Islamist ministers should be replaced had not been met, and that the pullout would be confirmed on Monday.
The move comes amid a crisis sparked by the killing last week of an opposition leader, which triggered mass protests.
Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said he wanted to form a government of technocrats, to ease tensions.
However, his own Islamist Ennahda party, which dominates the cabinet, has opposed the plan.

Syria opposition open to talks in rebel areas

Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib has said he is willing to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end a conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people.
The aim of the talks would be to find a way for Assad to leave power with the "minimum of bloodshed and destruction", al-Khatib said in a statement published on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile Battles continued between Syrian regime forces and rebels for the control of a key highway outside Damascus as rebels launched fierce assaults in several other parts of the country. Sunday’s fighting was the heaviest in the capital since the first rebel push into the city last July.
Checkpoints on the main artery into the city have changed hands several times since Wednesday, when opposition fighters started their campaign for the capital, the seat of President Bashar al-Assad's power.

Foreign doctors killed in north-eastern Nigeria

Three North Korean doctors have been killed in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Yobe, officials say.

Residents said they were killed during the night in the town of Potiskum. Two of them had their throats slit while the third was beheaded, they added.
Officials said the victims had been working at a government-run hospital.
No-one has said they were behind the attack, but it happened in an area where the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has been active in recent years.
Meanwhile On Friday, nine polio vaccination workers - all said to have been women - were shot dead in northern Nigeria. Some were killed in Kano, others at a health centre in Hotoro, outside the city.
President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the killings, for which no group has claimed responsibility, and vowed that the campaign to eradicate polio would be carried through to a successful conclusion.

Shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai leaves hospital

A Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban has been discharged from hospital after making a good recovery following surgery.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls' rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
She had a titanium plate and cochlear implant fitted at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital


COMMENTARY

1) THE YOUNG LADY WHO DIED  BECAUSE SHE COULDNT AFFORD N3.5MILLION TO TREAT CANCER
2) THE 3 NORTH KOREAN DOCTORS KILLED IN YOBE STATE
3) THE 9 WOMEN HEALTH WORKERS WHO WERE KILLED IN KANO

FEBRUARY 4TH 2013 PROGRAMME

NEWS

President Assad accuses Israel of destabilising Syria

Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad has accused Israel of trying to "destabilise" his country.

It was his first remarks on last week's reported Israeli air strike in Syria.
Syrian TV has shown images of the raid Damascus says Israeli jets carried out on a military research centre in Jamraya last Wednesday.
US officials said the air strike targeted a weapons convoy bound for Lebanon. The Israeli defence minister has hinted his country was responsible.

French President Hollande pledges to help rebuild Mali

French President Francois Hollande has said his government will help rebuild Mali, three weeks after launching an offensive against Islamist rebels who had seized the north of the country.

Speaking in the capital, Bamako, he pledged more French aid to its former colony and vowed to restore cultural sites damaged by the rebels.
Mr Hollande said France would help Mali re-establish control in the north.

Yahya Jammeh gives Gambians an extra day off

Gambia has started a four-day week for public sector workers, with Fridays now an extra day off.

President Yahya Jammeh has said the shorter week will give The Gambia's mainly Muslim population more time to pray, socialise and tend to fields.
Mr Jammeh, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, is known for his eccentric behaviour.
Critics say his latest decision will promote laziness and disrupt the poor West African state's economy.
Agriculture, especially peanut exports, forms the backbone of The Gambia's economy.This new arrangement will allow Gambians to devote more time to prayers, social activities and agriculture”It is also a popular tourist destination, because of its beaches.

Malala Yousafzai recovering after operations

The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban has undergone surgery in Birmingham.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls' rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said a titanium plate and cochlear implant were successfully attached in two operations on Saturday.

Suicide bomber strikes US embassy in Turkey

A security guard has been killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
The US ambassador to Turkey confirmed that one of the embassy's Turkish staff was killed.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said the bomber was a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left group which is virulently anti-American and anti-NATO.
Turkish media identified the bomber as Ecevit Sanli, who was involved in attacks on a police station and a military staff college in Istanbul in 1997.
The US is calling the attack an "act of terror," but said the motivation was unclear. US officials said that the DHKP-C was the main suspect, but did not exclude other possibilities.

Iran open to 'fair' nuclear talks with US

Iran is ready for direct talks with the United States on its nuclear programme as long as Washington has "fair and real intentions," said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
His comment came on Sunday, a day after US Vice President Joe Biden made the same offer to Tehran, with similar caveats, raising a glimmer of hope of progress in resolving the long-running standoff.
The United States, other Western powers and Israel believe Iran is working on a nuclear weapons programme, a charge the Islamic republic denies, claiming its programme is for civilian use.
Iran, which has been punished for its nuclear programme with tough US and EU sanctions, in January told the UN nuclear watchdog it will expand its uranium enrichment capacity.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said his country and its allies were "determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear" and all agreed that "no option should be removed off the table."


COMMENTARY 

1) ISRAEL
2) SYRIA
3) MALI
4) NIGERIA - 2015 ELECTION PROGNOSIS