ANGOLA HANDS OVER UNSAC LEADERSHIP TO EQUATORIAL GUINEA

 Angola hands over Wednesday the chair of the Committee of Experts of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security Issues in Central Africa (UNSAC) to Equatorial Guinea.

The process occurs during the fiftieth Meeting of UNSAC experts, to be held via videoconference, according to a note from Foreign Affairs Ministry, reached ANGOP.

The opening ceremony of the two-day event will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Esmeralda Mendonça.

The meeting will focus on various issues related to peace and security in Central Africa.

Among the topics, the participants will analyse the role of women in promoting peace and security in Covid-19, presentation of the Inter-regional Coordination Center, human rights and democracy in Central Africa.

The Committee will also discuss Committee´s financial situation.

The meeting will also address the issue on fight against Covid-19 and its impact on peace-building and security in Central Africa.

Other matters include the preparation of the agenda for the Ministerial Meeting, set for the Dec. 4th, which will analyse the report of the Experts Committee.

The ministerial meeting, which will be attended by the President of the EECAC, Gilberto Veríssimo, and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Central Africa, will adopt a Final Declaration.

In addition to Angola, UNSAC comprises Burundi, Gabon, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, Rwanda, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea.

COVID-19: ANGOLA REPORTS 207 RECOVERIES, 68 NEW INFECTIONS

 

Angola has reported the recovery of 207 patients and 68 new infections of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the authorities announced Tuesday evening in Luanda.

By:  Venceslau Mateus

Delivering the usual Covid-19 update briefing, the secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, said of the above new positive cases, 33 have been recorded in Luanda, 13 in northern Cabinda province, 11 in Huambo (centre) and four in Benguela (centre).

Eastern Moxico province has reported three, northern Uíge (02), southeastern  Cuando Cubango (01) and northern Zaire (01).

According to the official, the group of newly infected includes 41 males and 27 females, with ages from five months to 70 years.

The recoveries have been recorded in central Cuanza Sul province with 80, Benguela ( 75), Luanda (30), northern Malanje (20) and southwestern Namibe (02), the source added, saying the only death is a 38-year old Chinese national.

Angola’s current Covid-19 figures show 15,319 positive cases, 351 deaths, 8,139 recoveries and 6,829 active patients.

COVID-19: SOUTHERN BORDER VIOLATIONS CALL FOR INCREASED AWARENESS

Due to constant violations of the southern border, with Namibia, in the municipality of Dirico, province of Cuando Cubango, by citizens of both countries, the local administration has intensified awareness to prevent the spread of Covi-19.

At this time, the entry and exit of national and foreign citizens at the border, through the municipalities of Cuangar, Calai and Dirico with the Okavango region, was interrupted by Covid-19, as both countries have registered positive cases.

Due to the failure to comply with preventive measures against the pandemic, border violations have been frequent and have resulted in the arrest of more than 100 citizens.

According to Dirico's municipal administrator, Miguel Kassela, national citizens had to pay a fine of 100,000 kwanzas, while foreigners were deported.

The manager stated that the current reality makes the administration redouble efforts to raise awareness about the need to comply with preventive measures, a task that involves traditional and religious authorities, as well as community leaders.

In epidemiological terms, Cuando Cubango has registered so far 100 positive cases, with 3 deaths, 10 recovered. It has quarantined 480 citizens in the municipalities of Calai and Menongue (chief town).

Cyclone Burevi slams into eastern Sri Lanka

 

Tropical cyclone Burevi slammed into Sri Lanka’s eastern coast on Wednesday night and was expected to damage coastal buildings and power lines, as well as unleash flash floods, officials at the meteorological department said.

During the day Sri Lankan authorities evacuated over 75,000 people from homes on the east coast where cyclone Burevi, packing winds of up to 90 kph (56 mph) was set to hit.

The island’s disaster management centre advised those living near its path to stay indoors.

Earlier in the day Athula Karunanayake, the chief of the meteorology department said the wind speeds could reach 80 to 90 kph (50 to 56 mph).

“Some areas will get more than 200 mm (8 inches) of rain.”

Those evacuated, from the Trincomalee district expected to be hit the hardest, have been moved into 237 relief centres until the cyclone passes, disaster officials said.

But Anuradha Yahampath, governor of the eastern province which includes Trincomalee, said some people were still resisting the evacuation effort.

“I am appealing to people to go to these camps as soon as possible,” he told local media.

“I met some of the fishermen earlier. They are aware of the situation but they are still not ready to leave their homes.”

Authorities in the northern and eastern provinces, home to millions of people, will keep schools shut until at least Friday.

By Thursday, the cyclone’s path will carry it northwest towards the Arabian Sea, Karunanayake said.

Burevi is projected to move into southern India by early on Friday, Indian weather officials have said, but is expected to cause less damage there.

Sources: Prosecutors seek to question Abe

 

NHK has learned that Tokyo prosecutors have asked to question former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo over annual parties held for his supporters.

Abe’s supporters gathered for parties at Tokyo hotels on the eve of his annual cherry blossom viewing events.

Receipts and itemized statements from the hotels suggest Abe’s office paid about 76,500 dollars of the total costs of more than 190,000 dollars for the parties held between 2015 and 2019.

Prosecutors are believed to be investigating Abe’s chief secretary on suspicion of failing to report the revenue from the participants’ fees and payments to the hotels, in violation of the Political Funds Control Law.

Abe has repeatedly explained in the Diet that all the parties’ expenses were covered by the participants. He has insisted there was nothing to be recorded in political funding reports because no income or expenses were generated from the events.

Sources close to Abe earlier told NHK that a staff member gave misleading information to the former prime minister because his office did not report the income and expenses. They added that the staffer put Abe in the position of stating something contrary to the facts when answering questions in the Diet.

Prosecutors have apparently decided that they need to question the former prime minister on a voluntary basis about his knowledge of the matter. It is believed they want to do this after the Diet session, which is scheduled to end on Saturday.

Uganda: Bobi Wine suspends election campaign over violence

 

Bobi Wine, the Ugandan singer and presidential candidate, suspended his campaign on Tuesday after members of his campaign team were injured and his car shot at during clashes between security personnel and his supporters.

The developments were the latest in escalating violence in Uganda as authorities crack down on supporters of 38-year-old Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi.

“With effect from today, I am suspending my campaign until further notice,” he told a news conference in a village near the capital Kampala on Wednesday.

“We are going to the electoral commission headquarters to inquire why we are being tortured by security institutions… our campaign is affected by police brutality.”

Bobi Wine is seeking to end the decades-long rule of 76-year-old President Yoweri Museveni in an election scheduled for January 14.

Earlier on Tuesday, Daniel Oyerwot, a music producer for Bobi Wine, was wounded in the mouth by a rubber bullet during the clashes, according to a spokesman for his party.

The singer said on Twitter that several members other of his staff were wounded and some were in critical condition.

He added that he and his supporters attempted to move to another campaign venue, located in Jinja in eastern Uganda, but security personnel blocked him and shot and blew out his car’s tyres.

Last month, 54 people were killed, President Museveni said on Sunday, as police and military battled to quell riots in multiple cities that erupted after Bobi Wine was arrested for alleged violation of anti-coronavirus rules.Museveni, who has been in power since 1986 and had the constitution amended twice to allow him to run a sixth time in 2021, is seeking another five-year term in the January polls.

Since expressing his intention to run in the election, Bobi Wine has been arrested multiple times.

His large following has rattled the governing National Resistance Movement party, and security forces have frequently fired tear gas at his rallies and detained and beaten his supporters, according to witnesses.

Many young supporters say they are drawn to Bobi Wine by the criticism of Museveni’s government he has in his lyrics. Others say that as a young leader, he is better positioned to tackle the challenges they face.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA

Armed bank robbers storm another Brazilian town, battle police

 

More than 20 armed robbers stormed a bank in a small Brazilian town on Wednesday, taking hostages, exchanging gunfire with police in the streets and killing one person before fleeing in a convoy of vehicles.

The attack, in the early hours of the morning in the northern riverside city of Cameta, which has a population of 140,000 people, was the second such heist in as many days in Brazil, marking an escalation in the scale, organisation and aggression of bank robberies.

“They drove around shooting at the police and at the houses. It was a horrible scene to see,” said Junior Gaia, who lives nearby, in an interview with television network Globo News. “We were all laid out on the floor, afraid they would invade the homes.”

The attack saw the group of men, armed with high-calibre weapons, storm a branch of Banco do Brasil SA, the Para state security ministry said.

Images on social media showed a firefight in the streets of the town. The robbers killed one hostage during the heist, the ministry added, while another local resident was shot in the leg and is in a stable condition in hospital.

A recovered bag with money is seen after a gang robbed a Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil) in Criciuma, Santa Catarina state, Brazil [Guilherme Ferreira/Reuters]

“We pray to God to comfort the family of the young man who lost his life,” Cameta Mayor Waldoli Valente wrote on Facebook.The robberies took place at the start of December, when bank coffers are filled in anticipation of employees withdrawing their year-end bonuses, according to Cassio Thyone, a council member of the non-profit Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.

“It doesn’t happen without planning,” Thyone told the Associated Press by phone. “It’s another demonstration that everything is planned. They think of the location, and the timing.”

The security ministry said it had found one abandoned getaway vehicle outside the town with explosives inside. The town was now calm, it added, with police reinforcements arriving by plane and boat.

It was not immediately clear how many hostages had been taken or if they were all freed. Authorities also did not say how much money was stolen from the bank.

Brazil has a long history of bank heists, and major lenders have struggled with a wave of violent robberies in recent years.

Still, the country’s banking lobby association Febraban said bank raids fell 48.35 percent, year-on-year, to 47 attacks in the first nine months of 2020.

Police officers surround an area where explosives were found after a gang robbed a Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil) in Criciuma, Santa Catarina state, Brazil [Guilherme Ferreira/Reuters]

The Cameta attack came a day after a similar heist to a Banco do Brasil branch in the southern city of Criciuma.Bank robbers there blasted explosives and fired high-calibre weapons at police, in a heist that injured two people and left reams of cash in the streets to be pocketed by locals.

State-controlled lender Banco do Brasil did not immediately comment on the attacks.

SOURCE : NEWS AGENCIES