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Category: Foreign

  • UN-AU partnership crucial to tackling ‘complex peace, security challenges in Africa’ — Envoy

    UN-AU partnership crucial to tackling ‘complex peace, security challenges in Africa’ — Envoy

    Partnership between the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) is crucial to tackling the “complex peace and security challenges in Africa”, a UN special envoy, has said.

    Ms Sahle-Work Zewde, who is the UN Special Representative to the AU, told the UN Security Council that a stronger partnership between the UN and the AU is “not a choice but a necessity”.

    The UN envoy briefed the Council on the Secretary-General’s report on strengthening the partnership between the two organisations on issues of peace and security in Africa, including the work of her Office.

    Zewde, who is also Head of the UN Office in AU (UNOAU), said: “The complex peace and security challenges we face in Africa are such that neither the United Nations nor the African Union can address the challenges on their own.

    “As the Secretary-General noted during his briefing to the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa last week, the African Union is the most important strategic partner between the United Nations and a regional organization in peace and security, development and human rights.”

    The two organisations have prioritised the development of a systematic, predictable and strategic partnership, based on mutual respect, shared values and comparative advantage, Sahle-Work Zewde, the UN Special Representative to the AU and Head of the UN Office there (UNOAU), the UN envoy to the AU said.

    The UN and AU signed the Joint Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security in April last year, and the Joint Framework for Implementation of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in January 2018.

    “The partnership has since been characterised by closer collaboration, more regular exchange of information and consultations, and coordinated action including joint field visits and joint statements”, she said.

    They also need to recognise the critical role of sub-regional organisations, which are often the first to detect early warning signs of impending conflict, and are important partners in promoting dialogue and reconciliation.

    She stressed however, that even though the UN-AU relationship was stronger than ever, they need to work even more closely.

    She also underscored the importance of conflict resolution by reacting quickly and decisively to head off conflict before it escalates, while ensuring African ownership of this process.

    In the report, the Secretary-General has expressed his support for the financing of AU-led peace support operations authorised by the Security Council, including through UN assessed contributions.

    It is also essential that the issue of predictable and sustainable financing for AU peace operations authorised by the Security Council is – on a case-by-case basis – framed within the context of a mutually-agreed political strategy, and informed by joint analysis, she added. (NAN)

  • British Man plots to kill Prime Minister Theresa May

    British Man plots to kill Prime Minister Theresa May

    A British Man was found guilty on Wednesday of a plot to kill Prime Minister Theresa May.

    He was caught by first detonating an explosive device to get into her Downing Street Office and then using a knife or a gun to attack her.

    Naa’imur Rahman, 20, of north London, was convicted at the Old Bailey court of preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

    Rahman planned to detonate an improvised explosive device at the gates of Downing Street and gain access to May’s office in the ensuing chaos and kill her, according to police.

    No. 10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of British prime ministers.

    It is heavily guarded and there is a gate at the end of the street where members of the public and tourists gather to get a glimpse of the house.

    “We are talking about an individual that would have killed, injured and maimed a number of people including police officers and members of the public,’’ said Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.

    Britain suffered four deadly attacks last year and the head of the domestic spy agency MI5 said in May that a further 12 Islamist plots had been foiled since the first of these in March 2017.

    The Downing Street plot was foiled when Rahman believed he was corresponding online with members of the Islamic State (IS) militant group while planning the alleged attack but was in fact talking to members of undercover officers from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain’s MI5 Security Service.

    Rahman was arrested in November 2017 shortly after meeting with undercover officers posing as IS members and collecting two dummy explosive devices.

    Haydon said Rahman had been in contact with an uncle who had travelled to Syria and joined IS and who had encouraged his nephew to carry out attacks in Britain.

    Rahman had been planning to carry out the attack for two years but his resolve was hardened when he heard that his uncle had been killed in a drone attack last summer, Haydon added.

    Rahman was described by police as a drifter, who lived on friends’ sofas, and attempts to involve him in the government’s counter-extremism programme had failed. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Cameroon arrests 4 soldiers suspected of executing women, children

    Cameroon has arrested four soldiers suspected of shooting dead two women
    and two children in the country’s far north where its army is battling jihadist group Boko Haram,
    two security sources told Reuters.

    A video of the incident, which has been shared tens of thousands of times on Twitter since it emerged
    on July 13, has provoked international outcry.

    Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary initially described the footage as “fake news” and said that
    the men in the footage, who were wearing military fatigues, did not appear to be Cameroonian soldiers.

    However, he said the government would open an investigation.

    “Four soldiers were arrested on Sunday. They are suspected of being the authors of the executions in
    the video,” said an army officer in Cameroon’s Far North region near the border with Nigeria.

    A second security source said that three of the soldiers had been transferred to the capital Yaounde while
    the fourth was still being held in Maroua, the capital of the Far North.

    Spokesmen for the army and the government did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    The shaky footage shows two women, one with an infant strapped to her back, being led across a patch of
    dusty scrubland by a group of uniformed men, who accuse them of belonging to the Nigerian militant
    group Boko Haram.

    The women, silent throughout the ordeal, are blindfolded and told to sit down alongside their children.

    Moments later, two men step back, level their rifles and fire a series of rounds.

    Amnesty International said that it had gathered credible evidence that the men in the video were indeed
    Cameroonian soldiers based on an analysis of their weapons, speech and uniforms.

    Four Cameroonian military sources, including the officer in the Far North, told Reuters that the video
    did show Cameroonian soldiers.

    Two said the video was filmed in 2014 or 2015 in the early months of Cameroon’s operations against
    Boko Haram. (Reuters/NAN)
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  • Pakistan’s ex-PM Sharif develops health complications in jail – Doctors

    Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has developed health complications in jail and should be shifted to a hospital, a team of doctors has advised after examining him.

    Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz have been detained at a high-security prison in the city of Rawalpindi since July 13 following their conviction on corruption charges a week earlier.

    Sharif is dehydrated and at the risk of renal malfunctioning, a report prepared by doctors said after they had examined the former premier.

    It was not immediately known if the government would act according to the doctors’ advice.

    “He is in bad shape and we want authorities to shift him to hospital for better treatment,” said Mohamed Mehdi, a spokesman for Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party.

    Sharif has a known history of diabetes and a heart condition and underwent a surgery in 20016.

    Jail authorities have not allowed Sharif’s personal physician to see him since his arrest, Mehdi said.

    He might have developed these complications because he was not being treated well, said Mushahidullah Khan, a leader of Sharif’s party.

    Sharif’s group is a frontrunner in national elections set for Wednesday and is slightly ahead of rivals in opinion polls.

    Sharif, who is thought to be a strong advocate of civilian supremacy in a country ruled by generals for several decades, was removed by the Supreme Court in 2017.(dpa/NAN)

  • Trump blames Obama for alleged Russia’s meddling in U.S. election

    U.S. President, Donald Trump, has again blamed former President, Barack Obama, for “not doing something” about alleged Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, while he was still president.

    Trump, in a tweet, also described the alleged election meddling as a hoax, saying it was the reason Obama did not act.

    He said Obama thought the Democratic presidential candidate and arch-rival, Hillary Clinton, was going to win.

    Trump tweeted: “So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election. Why didn’t he do something about it?

    “Why didn’t he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!’’

    The president took a swipe at the whole Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) warrant application, released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) against Carter Page, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser.

    Trump described Page’s FISA documents as a scam, “which led to the rigged Mueller Witch Hunt!’’.

    Alleged Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, in which Trump won by electoral college but lost to Clinton by almost two million popular votes, led to the set-up of the special panel headed by Robert Mueller.

    The FBI on Saturday released a redacted version of the warrant application on Page, marking the first public disclosure of a highly sensitive FISA request.

    Trump said that the FISA documents “confirm with little doubt’’ that the Justice Department and the FBI “misled the courts”.

    Trump went on to allege that his campaign was potentially being “illegally” surveyed for “`the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC’’ (Democratic National Congress).

    “Looking more and more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

    “Ask her how that worked out – she did better with Crazy Bernie. Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!’’ Trump tweeted.

    The U.S. leader bragged about having “a great meeting” with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, but blamed the media, which he described as “fake news” for trying to disparage the meeting.

    “I had a great meeting with Putin and the fake news used every bit of their energy to try and disparage it. So bad for our country!’’ Trump tweeted. (NAN)

  • Indian govt sets up panel to suggest laws against lynching, mob violence

    Expressing concerns over the growing number of mob violence incidents in the country, the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday said the government has constituted a four-member committee, headed by Union Home Secretary, to suggest laws against lynching and mob violence.

    The committee, chaired by home secretary Rajiv Gauba, will submit its recommendations in four weeks.

    The latest move comes days after the Supreme Court asked Parliament to come up with a special law to deter such crimes, saying “the horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be permitted to inundate the law of the land”. The apex court said the “recurrent pattern of violence “cannot be allowed to become the new normal”.

    READ | Mobocracy can’t be the new normal, get a law to punish lynching: SC to Govt

    A group of minister headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also been constituted to make recommendations for legislation on lynching. The group of ministers will submit their recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    “Government is concerned at the incidents of violence by mobs in some parts of the country. Government has already condemned such incidents and has made its stand clear in Parliament that it is committed to upholding the rule of law and adopting effective measures to curb such incidents,” the MHA said in a press release.

    It stated that the government respects the recent directions of SC on the issue of mob violence, and has issued an advisory to state governments urging them to take effective measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching and to take stringent action as per law.

    ALSO READ | No-confidence motion: Biggest mob lynching took place in 1984, don’t try to teach us, says Rajnath Singh

    The state governments have been advised to implement the directions issued in the matter by the Supreme Court on July 17, the MHA said.

    The high level committee chaired by the Union Home Secretary will have Secretary, Department of Justice, Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Secretary, Legislative Department and Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment as members.

    The GoM headed by the Home Minister will have Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Thawarchand Gehlot and will submit their recommendations to the Prime Minister.

    For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App

  • UN chief cautions Hamas, Israel against war in Gaza

    UN chief cautions Hamas, Israel against war in Gaza

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has voiced deep concern over the latest flare-up of violence around Gaza, urging all sides to “step back from the brink of another devastating conflict”.

    The Secretary-General said in a statement: “I am gravely concerned over the dangerous escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel.

    “I deeply regret the loss of life. It is imperative that all sides urgently step back from the brink of another devastating conflict.”

    On March 30, Palestinians in Gaza – controlled by Hamas, a militant Palestinian faction – started a mass protest against a blockade of the enclave imposed by Israel since the early 1990’s.

    The confrontation between the two sides has since escalated.

    On Friday, Palestinian gunmen allegedly killed an Israeli soldier and in response, the Israeli military reportedly launched dozens of strikes that killed three Hamas fighters.

    A fourth Palestinian was suspectedly killed by Israeli gunfire during a protest near the border.

    Guterres called on Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza to cease the launching of rockets and incendiary kites and provocations along the enclave’s border fence.

    The UN chief also said Israel must exercise restraint to avoid further inflaming the situation.

    “Any further escalation will endanger the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike, deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and undermine current efforts to improve livelihoods and support the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” he said.

    The Secretary-General also encouraged all to engage with the UN, and particularly his Special Coordinator, Nickolay Mladenov, and work to find “a way out of this dangerous situation”. (NAN)

  • Pakistan set to get first female Chief Justice

    LAHORE: 

    Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Monday nominated Justice Syeda Tahira Safdar as the Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court (BHC), paving way for her to become the first female chief justice of any court in the country.

    “Madam Tahira Safdar will be the next chief justice of BHC,” he announced at Justice Safdar’s book launch in Lahore, where he was invited as the chief guest.

    BHC’s incumbent Chief Justice Muhammad Noor Meskanzai is scheduled to retire on September 1 this year. He was sworn in on December 26, 2014 after Justice Qazi Faez Isa was elevated as a Supreme Court judge.BHC may have nation’s first woman chief justice

    Justice Tahira Safdar will work as the chief justice of the BHC till October 5 next year. Justice Tahira Safdar is part of the special court, hearing the high treason case against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

    Interestingly, Justice Safdar was the first woman to be appointed as a civil judge in Balochistan, besides having the distinction of being the first lady to be appointed in all posts she served. She was also the first female high court judge.

    Govt yet to notify new Musharraf trial court

    According to her profile on BHC’s website, Justice Safdar is the daughter of Syed Imtiaz Hussain Baqri Hanafi, a renowned lawyer.

    She was born on October 5, 1957, at Quetta. She received her basic education from the Cantonment Public School, Quetta, and finished her bachelors’ degree from the Government Girls College, Quetta. Justice Syeda Tahira Safdar did her Masters in Urdu Literature from the University of Balochistan, and completed her degree in law from the University Law College, Quetta, in 1980.

    While addressing the media today at the book launch, Justice Nisar said that he will never even let a scratch come to the institution. “Unfortunately, a few forces are trying to undermine and weaken the judiciary, I will never let that happen,” he remarked. “As long as the Supreme Court exists, no threats against democracy will succeed.”

    Culled from The Tribune Express

  • Mahama leads Commonwealth election observers for Zimbabwe elections

    Mr John Mahama, former president of Ghana, will lead a Commonwealth group to observe Zimbabwe’s general elections on July 30, the Commonwealth Secretariat has announced.

    The secretariat, in a statement by its Media Division, said Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, would deploy Mahama to lead other eminent persons from across the regions of Commonwealth.

    Zimbabwe is not a member of the Commonwealth.

    It withdrew from the organisation in 2003 after it was suspended for being in breach of the Harare Declaration, which sets out the Commonwealth’s core principles and values.

    However, in May, President Emmerson Mnangagwa wrote to the Commonwealth’s Secretary-General, expressing an interest in re-joining the association and requesting the Commonwealth to observe its forthcoming elections.

    The observation group’s report on the election would contribute to the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s informal assessment of whether Zimbabwe should be readmitted, the Secretariat said.

    It quoted the Secretary-General as saying: “I am extremely pleased to be deploying a group to observe the elections.

    “Its report on the electoral process will give member countries a clear view of adherence to Commonwealth values in Zimbabwe, including democracy and rule of law plus protection of human rights such as freedom of expression.

    “Our heads of government have said twice, in 2009 and 2011 that they look forward to Zimbabwe’s return.

    “I very much hope that the forthcoming election proves that the conditions are right’’.

    Following the visit of a pre-election assessment team to the country in June, the Secretary-General has constituted a 24-member team of observers, led by Mahama.

    The former Ghanaian president had previously led the Commonwealth teams observing elections in Sierra Leone and Kenya.

    There are 23 presidential candidates in coming Zimbabwe’s election.

    In accordance with Zimbabwe’s constitution, if no presidential candidate receives a clear majority in the election on July 30, a run-off vote will be held on Sept. 8.

    The 270-seat House of Assembly is comprised of 210 members elected from constituencies and 60 women elected by proportional representation.

    Commonwealth observers would assess factors affecting the credibility of the electoral process as a whole, the secretariat said.

    They would consider the pre-electoral environment, voting process, counting and tabulation procedures and the announcement of results.

    “The group is independent and will determine, in its own judgement, whether the elections have been conducted according to the standards of Zimbabwe’s election-related legislation as well as relevant regional, Commonwealth and international commitments.

    “Observers will act impartially and will adhere to the standards of the International Declaration of Principles for Election Observation, to which the Commonwealth is a signatory,’’ the Commonwealth Secretariat said.

    The Group would submit its report to the Secretary-General, who would send it to the Government of Zimbabwe, its Electoral Commission, political parties and all Commonwealth governments.

    The report would then be made public.

    The Observer Group would arrive in Zimbabwe on July 23 and would be supported by a nine-member staff team from the Commonwealth Secretariat, led by Katalaina Sapolu, Director of the Governance and Peace Directorate. (NAN)