MPLA praises Angolan Executive for the launch of Angosat-2

 Caxito – The Provincial Committee of the ruling MPLA party in the northern Bengo province praised Thursday the Angolan Executive for the launch of ANGOSAT-2, which it says will boost technologies and increase the country's recognition at home and abroad.

The praise is expressed in the final communiqué of the 2nd extraordinary session of the MPLA provincial committee in Bengo, chaired by the second party secretary, João Mpilamosi.

The meeting was meant to arrange the 7th extraordinary provincial conference on the 25th of this month.

The governor of the province of Bengo, Maria Antónia Nelumba, was presented to the members of the provincial committee as a candidate for the position of first provincial secretary of the MPLA in Bengo.

The plenary unanimously approved the candidacy of Maria Antónia Nelumba, the report on the current state of organisation and functioning of the provincial committee.

The participants also took note of the participation of the MPLA in the elections on 24 August.

Addressing a closing ceremony, the second provincial secretary, João Mpilamosi, said the holding of the VII extraordinary conference aims to guarantee the fulfillment of the resolution of the Political Bureau, in the sense of electing the new first provincial secretary.

ANGOSAT-2 has a transmission capacity seven times greater than that of ANGOSAT-1, which had 16 C-Band and six KU-Band relays.

With 15 years lifespan, the Angopst-2 also has six “transponders” in the C band, 24 in the KU bank and, as a novelty, a retransmitter in the KA band.

It is a high transmission rate (HTS) satellite, with a total weight of two tons, prepared to deliver 13 gigabytes in each illuminated region (satellite signal range areas). The same will be based on the Eurostar-3000 platform.

Construction of Angosat-2 began on April 28, 2018, at Airbus facilities in France, where the full satellite payload was installed.

The structure was then transferred to the Reshetnev ISS plant in the "closed" city of Zheleznogorsk, near Krasnoyarsk, in the Siberia region, where the carcass was produced and the starting mechanism installed.

This was followed by the transfer to the launch site of the Baikonur Aerospace Station in Kazakhstan, where it was launch into space orbit on Wednesday.

The new satellite arises in the strategy of the Angolan Government to reduce digital exclusion in the country, in particular, and in Africa, in general, allowing the expansion of telecommunications services to the most remote areas at competitive prices.

The satellite, which holds a number of services, has the capacity to cover the African continent, with emphasis on the southern region, and a significant part of southern Europe.

It arose with the mission to replace Angosat-1, the first Angolan satellite, launched into orbit on December 26, 2017, which faced space problems.

During the launch, there was a main loss of contact due to a power subsystem failure shortly after orbit, although communications were recovered, and subsequent problems with satellite power.

The artifact had been launched into orbit via Ukrainian carrier Zenit from the Baikonu Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian Federation.

Built following an agreement signed between Angola and Russia in 2009, Angosat-1 cost 360 million dollars to the coffers of the Angolan State.

The satellite had $120 million in insurance, which covered about 90% of its zero replacement in the event of destruction or eventual disappearance.

UN reaffirms cooperation for sustainable development

 Luanda – The United Nations system in Angola reaffirmed Thursday its commitment to cooperate with the Angolan Executive in the implementation of the 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The information was provided by the resident coordinator of the United Nations system in Angola, Zahira Virani, who was speaking at the end of a meeting with the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança Costa.

The 2020 Agenda is a universal plan based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be implemented by all countries, aimed at eradicating poverty and promoting economic, social and environmental development on a global scale.

The senior UN official said that next year she would work with the Angolan government to prepare a cooperation framework that meets Angola's development needs.

The official also recalled that several UN agencies work to guarantee the millennium development goals, in areas such as health, education, drought and climate change.

Zahira Virani stated that it was a first meeting with Esperança Costa that gives her joy and pride, as a woman in the position of Vice-President of the Republic.

BURKINA FASO – Pro-Traore mob demonstrate for young soldier to remain in power

THIS JUST IN – On the eve of the launching of the transitional charter to usher in a new leader to head the country’s transition to civilian rule, a group of mostly motor bike riders went on a demonstration to short-circuit the process for the young military leader to remain in power.

Shutting down commercial activities in the southwestern city of Bobo-Dioulasso and parts of capital Ouagadougou, the demonstrators demanded that the process stops and Captain Ibrahim Traore to remain in power.

  

It is not clear who is behind the demonstration, and so far, no identifiable group has claimed to e behind it. But the banners and the T-Shirts called for Captain Traore to remain in power.

On October 2, 2022, Captain Traore declared famously that soldiers have no place in the presidential palace, and that they belonged in the barracks.

Last week, the young leader kept his word and announced that a transitional charter will be launched on October 14, 2022 to designate a new leader who will lead the transitional process back to civilian rule.

So far, there have been no reports of violence of police encounters.

DNT News with Correspondence reports from Julius Ouya

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Alert over India-made cough syrups after deaths in The Gambia

 A global alert has been issued over four cough syrups after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia.

The syrups have been “potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children”, it said.

The products were manufactured by an Indian company, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, which had failed to provide guarantees about their safety, the WHO added.

The firm has not yet commented.

The BBC has contacted Maiden Pharmaceuticals for comment.

Indian officials say they have asked the WHO to share evidence of the link between the syrups and the deaths.

The WHO identified the medicines as Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup.

The four products had been identified in The Gambia, but “may have been distributed, through informal markets, to other countries or regions”, the WHO added, in the alert published on its website.

It warned that their use may result in serious injury or death, especially among children.

The WHO’s intervention came after medical authorities in The Gambia – a popular tourist destination – detected an increase in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five in late July.

The Gambia’s government has since suspended the use of all paracetamol syrups and has urged people to use tablets instead.

The number of deaths has declined since the ban but two more have been recorded in the past two weeks, Gambia health services director Mustapha Bittay told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

He said that The Gambia did not currently have a laboratory capable of testing whether medicines were safe and so they had to be sent abroad for checking. Mr Bittay added that The Gambia was in discussions with the World Bank to get funding for a quality-control laboratory.

The WHO said that laboratory analysis of samples of the products “confirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants”.

The substances were toxic, and their effects “can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to death,” it added.

Mr Bittay also said that traces had also been found of E.Coli, a bacteria which can cause diarrhoea and vomiting.

The Gambia’s health officials said last month that dozens of children had died, without giving an exact number.

Speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said: “The loss of these young lives is beyond heart-breaking for their families.”

The WHO said that India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation indicated that the manufacturer may have only supplied the contaminated medications to The Gambia, AFP news agency reports, quoting an email from the UN health agency.

But the WHO said that “global exposure” was possible as the “manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported” them, the agency reports.

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Ghana, 142 others vote to reject Russia’s attempted annexation of four Ukrainian regions

 The UN General Assembly (UNGA) overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Wednesday telling Russia its annexation of four Ukrainian zones is illegal and not valid.

Ghana was among the 143 countries that voted in favour of the resolution, 15 abstained from the exercise and 5 rejected the resolution including Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the resolution “historic” in a tweet and thanked the states that voted in favor.

During the assembly’s emergency special session on Ukraine, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the vote “is important not just to the future of Ukraine and the future of Europe, but to the very foundations of this institution.”

“After all, the UN was built on an idea: that never again would one country be allowed to take another’s territory by force,” Thomas-Greenfield added.

The US diplomat said the resolution calls for peace and de-escalation, and “makes clear that we reject Russia’s attempted annexations. That we reject this affront to territorial integrity, to national sovereignty, to peace and security.”

She noted that “today it is Russia invading Ukraine. But tomorrow it could be another nation whose territory is violated. You could be next. What would you expect from this chamber?”

“So let us send a clear message today: these United Nations will not tolerate attempts at illegal annexation. We will never recognize it. These United Nations will not tolerate seizing a neighbor’s land by force. We will stand up to it. These United Nations will not tolerate the destruction of the UN Charter. We will defend it,” she told the assembly.

“Our message Today is loud and clear: It does not matter if you, as a nation, are big or small, rich or poor, old or new. If you are a UN Member State, your borders are your own and are protected by international law. They cannot be redrawn by anyone else by force.” Thomas-Greenfield added.

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The Ivorian immigrant elected to Italy’s conservative parliament

 He is the only Black lawmaker in the lower chamber of 400 deputies and one of a handful ever elected in Italy’s history.

When Aboubakar Soumahoro was a teenager in his native Ivory Coast, he used to clean shoes and dream of going to Italy, filling a scrapbook with pictures of Italian fashion designs that he cut out of magazines.

He made it to Rome in 1999, aged 19, but was shocked by the harsh reality of migrant life in a country he had idolised.

“Sleeping rough in the streets was traumatic, especially when I realised that this was the result of a political decision that targeted the migrants,” Soumahoro told Reuters news agency.

Now an Italian citizen, the 42-year-old has a unique opportunity to reshape such decision-making – from within parliament.

He won a seat in the lower house for the Green and Left party in the September 25 national election and hopes to make his mark from opposition ranks, facing a victorious conservative coalition that has promised to crack down on asylum seekers.

“One thing I will try to do is make sure that no one ends up living in the streets like me. People need to be treated as human beings regardless of what passport they have,” he said, speaking in advance of the October 13 opening of parliament.

He will stand out as the only Black lawmaker in the lower chamber of 400 deputies – one of only a handful ever to have been elected in the 160-year history of Italy.

Soumahoro says with a smile that he will have the “best suntan” in parliament, but is adamant that he intends to speak for the poor and disfranchised, regardless of their colour.

“I do not want to represent just one part of society. I want to make sure that everyone, both the dispossessed and those who struggle to make ends meet, can recognise themselves in what we do,” he said.

Soumahoro’s election is the culmination of an astonishing personal journey that included picking crops in the fields, laying bricks, working at a gas station, studying sociology at Naples University and writing a book: Humanity in Revolt.

He is reticent about his personal life, saying only that he has a young child and remains in touch with his family in West Africa. “It is more important to talk about ‘us’ and not ‘I’,” he said, adding that Italian politics was far too personalised.

Within a few years of his arrival in Italy, he became an activist helping migrants without official documents, focusing on the exploitation of farm labourers. He subsequently founded a union representing agricultural workers.

He says right-wing parties that are about to take power have politicised the migrant issue for electoral gain.

Both Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which took most votes last month, and Matteo Salvini’s League party, have promised to block boat migrants from North Africa and adopted what they call an “Italians first” policy.

“Putting Italians first is not going to pull 5.6 million Italians out of poverty,” he said, accusing the right of failing to grasp the severity of problems faced by common families.

The election winners have said they will roll back a so-called citizens’ income, which provides a monthly stipend to the poor and unemployed. Soumahoro said instead of being curtailed, it needed to be expanded to help more people.

“Politicians haven’t seen the coming hurricane of poverty,” he said, warning that rising energy and food prices would create growing desperation and arguing that a more equitable distribution of wealth would ease gathering social tensions.

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Cameroon, Nigeria request to join Ivory-Ghana cocoa initiative

 Cameroon and Nigeria requested to join the Cote d’Ivoire-Ghana Cocoa Initiative (CIGCI), a joint body spearheading the interests of the two countries in the cocoa trade, the head of the initiative Alex Assanvo said on Wednesday.

The initiative was set up after a 2018 declaration by Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s first and second-largest cocoa producers, on willingness to define a common sustainable cocoa strategy that would raise prices paid to farmers.

It was created with the view of including other African countries.

Representatives from Cameroon and Nigeria were invited to a CIGCI meeting in Abidjan to begin the process of joining the initiative, Assanvo told reporters after the meeting.

“With Cameroon and Nigeria we are going to represent around two-thirds of global cocoa production,” Yves Brahima Kone, chief executive of the Ivory Coast Cocoa and Coffee Council, said at the meeting.

“This will allow us to have more leeway in discussions with the industry on imposing a decent price for our cocoa farmers.”

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DOT IGNORE IT Warning for millions of Android phone owners – beware of tiny dot on screen

 IF THIS ominous dot appears on your Android screen, you could be being watched.

A function added to the phones by developers at Google warns users when apps are accessing your camera or microphone.

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Android devices tell users that an app is currently using the camera or microphone by lighting up a warning symbol in the top right cornerCredit: Google

The feature, which was introduced last year, is quite similar to one that currently exists on Apple's rival iPhone.

A symbol appears in the corner of the phone's display when the microphone or camera has been turned on.

It lights up when you open the camera app, for instance, or record a voice message on WhatsApp.

But its main purpose is to protect you from dodgy apps that record you without your knowledge.

For a sense of safety, users can check a history of which apps have used your camera, microphone or location.

Users will also be able to check and see when these functions were enabled, if they were.

The new Privacy Dashboard in Settings has this information.

In your Quick Settings, you may also completely disable your microphone and camera.

It's important to remember that just because you see an icon, doesn't mean something is wrong.

Instagram, for example, is one of those apps that uses your camera.

However, if you detect an unusual app using your camera, it could indicate that you're being watched.

Numerous apps that improperly access the camera on Android phones have been discovered, according to cyber specialists.

As a result, make sure you're on Android 12 and that you're on the lookout for anything suspicious.

Check the app's permissions in Settings if you feel something is wrong.

There's also the option to limit access to select apps to your microphone or camera.

In the case that you're really concerned, you could remove the app entirely from your Android device.