Uige Emeritus Bishop dies at 94

 Uíge - The Emeritus Bishop of the Uige Diocese, Dom Francisco da Mata Mourisca, died Thursday in Luanda at the age of 94 a victim of an illness, ANGOP has learnt through a death note issued by the Uige Diocese.

With civil name José Moreira dos Santos, D. Francisco da Mata Mourisca was born on October 12, 1928, in Mata Mourisca, from where he got his name, in Coimbra Diocese, Portugal.

 

D. Franciso da Mata Mourisca was named bishop of the Diocese of Uige, then Diocese of Carmona and S. Salvador, on March 14, 1967, at the age of 39, and ordained on April 30 of the same year, in Porto, Portugal.  

 

The Bishop belonged to the Capuchin Order of Friars Minor having been ordained priest in Porto on January 20, 1952.

 

Graduated in Dogmatic Theology at the University of Salamanca, Spain, in 1957, Msgr. Francisco da Mata Mourisca took up various leading positions in Portugal, among them that of Provincial Minister of the Capuchins.

Angola outlines plan to combat sexual violence against children

 Luanda - Angolan government plans to create an Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Sexual Violence against Children, as part of a new model of decentralisation of the social protection policy and municipalisation of social action.

The information was disclosed Wednesday by the secretary of State for Family and Women Promotion, Alcina Lopes Kindanda, at the closing ceremony of the National Campaign for Prevention and Combat of Sexual Violence against Children, which ran from March 2021 to March 2023.

 

Kindanda said that the proposal has already been formalised and that it is currently gathering more contributions.

 

The plan, Kindanda said, includes a set of relevant actions, whose objectives are based on the pillars of prevention, protection, combat and development that are part of the new municipalisation model of social action.

 

 The official added that during the two-year campaign several actions had been carried out, with emphasis on the awareness raising that covered an overall 4.5 million people.

 

Kindanda explained that at the beginning of the National Campaign for the Prevention and Combat of Sexual Violence against Children in 2021, the National Children Institute (INAC) registered in the whole country 1,141 cases of sexual violation against children, after one year of work in 2022, 4,706 cases of sexually violated children were registered.

 

The secretary of State said that in view of the work carried out, until this month,2,593 cases were registered, a significant reduction of almost half compared to 2022.

Unrest in Senegal as police clash with opposition supporters

 Ousmane Sonko, widely supported by Senegalese youth, is facing a civil libel case filed against him by Senegal’s tourism minister for alleged defamation and public insults.

Police and demonstrators clashed in Senegal’s capital Dakar on Thursday before a court case involving opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who is widely supported by many of the West African country’s youth.

Law enforcement officers fired tear gas at hundreds of Sonko supporters as they trailed vehicles taking him to court for the resumption of a civil libel case against him by Senegal’s tourism minister for alleged defamation and public insults.

Protesters burned tyres in the streets and hurled stones at police. A large supermarket was set on fire, the reporters said.

Sonko, 48, is also charged with raping a beauty salon employee in 2021 and making death threats against her. He denies all wrongdoing and says the accusations are politically motivated. No date has been set for the trial.

Thursday’s skirmishes are the latest round of unrest in Senegal, where presidential elections are scheduled for February next year. The country has long been seen as a bastion of stability and democracy in a restive region, a reputation shaken by deadly violence over the last two years.

Much of the anger is targeted towards President Macky Sall, whose failure to rule out running for a third term in office has angered many. Senegal’s constitution only allows two terms, but some fear that Sall will use a recent tweak to the constitution to reset his mandate, a tactic used by other rulers to extend power in the region.

His government has also been accused of imprisoning dissidents and members of the opposition.

But many Senegalese youths have also been drawn to Sonko because of high unemployment and economic hardship.

This has led to sporadic and sometimes violent protests. Cries of “Macky Sall is a dictator” rang out in Dakar during one protest in July 2022.

Tensions have flared before Sonko’s court appearance this week, with three days of protest. More than 10,000 supporters gathered at a field in Dakar on Tuesday to cheer on Sonko, who hopes to run for president in February. The former tax inspector came third in the 2019 polls – the youngest candidate in that election.

Sonko supporters accuse Sall of seeking to eliminate him from the competition with a guilty verdict.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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Whistleblower Doctor Jiang Yanyong Who Exposed China’s Sars Cover-up Dies

 Jiang Yanyong, a former military surgeon who blew the whistle on Chinese authorities’ cover-up of the 2003 Sars epidemic, has died aged 91.

He died of pneumonia on Saturday in Beijing, family friends and Chinese-language media in Hong Kong reported.
Dr Jiang was praised for saving lives after writing a letter in the early stage of the Sars crisis which revealed officials were playing down the threat.

But he endured house arrest at one point for his unwavering outspokenness.
Sars infected more than 8,000 people worldwide in 2003. Of these, 774 died, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

Dr Jiang had been working in a Beijing hospital in April 2003, when he was alarmed to hear the Chinese health minister telling the public there were only a handful of cases of a new deadly respiratory disease.
The senior doctor said he knew more than 100 people had Sars – severe acute respiratory syndrome – in military hospital wards alone.

He sent a letter exposing the lies in the official narrative to Chinese state broadcasters, who ignored it. But the letter was then leaked to foreign media who published his account in full.
His revelations forced the Chinese government to admit it had provided false information, and spurred the WHO into action.

Strict containment measures were imposed overnight, which helped slow the spread of the virus.
His actions also led to the sacking of China’s health minister and Beijing’s mayor at the time.
“I felt I had to reveal what was happening, not just to save China, but to save the world,” he said about his actions.

Read Full Story …. HERE >>> :   

Source: BBC

 

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Assad welcomes new Russian bases in Syria after Putin meeting

 The Syrian leader made the comments during a visit to Moscow, adding that Russia’s presence should become permanent.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that he would welcome any Russian proposals to set up new military bases and boost troop numbers in the Middle Eastern country, suggesting Moscow’s military presence there should become permanent.

When Russia intervened in the war in Syria in 2015, four years after protests began in the country, it helped tip the balance in al-Assad’s favour, ensuring the Syrian leader’s survival despite Western demands that he be toppled.

Al-Assad, who met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, has supported Moscow’s war in Ukraine and told Russia’s state news agency RIA that Damascus recognises the territories claimed by the Kremlin in Ukraine.

Syria, al-Assad said, would welcome any Russian proposals to set up new military bases and boost Russian troop numbers – and said they need not be temporary.

“We think that expanding the Russian presence in Syria is a good thing,” al-Assad told RIA in an interview published on Thursday. “Russia’s military presence in any country should not be based on anything temporary.”

“We believe that if Russia has the desire to expand bases or increase their number, it is a technical or logistical issue.”

Al-Assad’s years as president have been defined by the conflict that began in 2011 with peaceful protests before spiralling into a multi-sided conflict that has fractured the country and drawn in foreign friends and enemies.

He has retaken territory from the opposition with the help of Russia and Iran, but all three have been accused by human rights groups of war crimes.

Alongside the Hmeimim airbase, from which Russia launches air attacks in support of al-Assad, Moscow also controls the Tartus naval facility in Syria, its only naval foothold in the Mediterranean, in use since the days of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s defence ministry said in January that Russia and Syria had restored the al-Jarrah military air base in Syria’s north to be jointly used. The small base east of Aleppo was recaptured from ISIL (ISIS) fighters in 2017.

In Moscow, al-Assad thanked Putin for the help Russia had given to Syria after last month’s devastating earthquake.

Syria stood beside Russia on the issue of Ukraine, al-Assad said.

“Because this is my first visit since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, I would like to repeat the Syrian position in support of this special operation,” al-Assad told Putin, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Syria recognises the territories of Ukraine which Russia has seized as Russian, al-Assad said.

“I say that these are Russian territories, and even if the war had not happened, these are historically Russian territories,” he told RIA.

Russia has claimed about a fifth of Ukraine and says the lands are now part of Russia. Ukraine says it will fight until every last Russian soldier is ejected from Ukraine. The West says the annexation of Ukrainian territory is illegal.

Al-Assad said Russia and Syria planned to sign an agreement on economic cooperation in the coming weeks.

SOURCE: REUTERS

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Anas Loses Court Case; Kennedy Agyapong Vindicated

 An Accra High Court has dismissed ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’s GHC25 million defamatory suit against the MP for Assin Central in the Central Region, Kennedy Agyapong.

Anas, in 2018, dragged the lawmaker to court for allegedly defaming him. In his application, Anas prayed to the court to award aggravated damages of GHC25 million to compensate for the defamatory material published against him by the MP.

In a lengthy ruling delivered today Wednesday 15 March 2023, Justice Eric Baah held that the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas] failed to prove that Ken Agyapong defamed him by airing the documentary – “Who watches the watchman” – but rather, the documentary exposed shady deals that Anas and his associates were involved in.

The court further held that Agyapong provided sufficient evidence to prove that the plaintiff used the findings of his work to solicit money from persons implicated in the evidence gathered by him.

The evidence, according to the court, also proved that those who were able to pay the sums of money demanded by Anas and his associates, got exempted from videos that were shown to the public.

The court concluded that what Anas is engaged in is not investigative journalism but rather investigative terrorism and that Agyapong was justified to call Anas “a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, and evil”.

“I find the claims by the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas) meritless and they are hereby dismissed” Justice Baah ruled.

According to Anas, Agyapong on 29 May 2018, during a live programme in Twi on Adom TV, categorically stated that he [Anas] was a blackmailer, corrupt, an extortionist, and evil.
According to the statement of claim filed by the lawyers of Anas, the defendant, similarly, Mr. Agyapong published defamatory words on 31 May 2018, on Oman FM, a private radio station owned by the defendant [Kennedy Agyapong].

The statement of claim also stated that the defendant published more defamatory materials against the plaintiff via other platforms to the extent of releasing pictures purported to be those of the investigative journalist in his bid to blow the latter’s cover.

Anas indicated in his statement of claim that his reputation, especially as a lawyer and as a globally acclaimed investigative journalist, has been egregiously damaged.
“Furthermore, Anas indicate that following the publication, he was inundated with numerous calls from business associates, journalists around the world, social relations, friends, outright strangers, and he has had to answer very mortifying questions,” the statement of claim said.

According to Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Mr. Agyapong published the words complained of knowing them to be false and reckless.
Lawyers of Kennedy Agyapong after the ruling asked the court to award cost of 1 million Ghana cedis against the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas].
Lawyer for the Anas Aremeyaw Anas when he stood on his feet offered to pay Ghc 20,000.00 as cost.

Justice Eric Baah indicated that since the award of cost in such civil cases is at the discretion of the court, he will award cost of GHc 50,000.00 against the plaintiff [Anas Aremeyaw Anas].

Source: Asaaseradio

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Where in the world can you have the longest retirement?

 As people in France protest over pension reforms, Al Jazeera examines the age of retirement and life expectancy in different countries.

A bill to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 is being met with protests across France. The proposed reform was accelerated by the country’s senate on Saturday and comes as France faces a demographic challenge.

The number of active workers able to support the public pension system is shrinking with more people retiring.

The chart below shows the differences between the average retirement age for men and women and their respective life expectancies in several countries.

Life expectancy, compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), measures the average number of years that a newborn could expect to live given sex and age-specific death rates at the time of his/her birth.

Retirement age, collected from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2020, measures the mandatory and voluntary age at which a person who entered the labour force at age 22 will work up until.

In South Africa, men spend on average only two years in retirement.

In Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia and Russia – as well as in Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa – men spend on average less than 10 years in retirement.

Iceland, Israel and Norway have the oldest retirement ages at 67. However, life expectancy is also about 81 – meaning on average men in these countries spend 14 years in retirement.

Women in general have a longer life expectancy than men – and therefore better prospects of a longer retirement.

In South Africa, women spend less than 10 years in retirement, with an average life expectancy of 68 and a retirement age of 60. This is followed by Mexico and India, where women spend about 14 years in retirement.

In Saudi Arabia, women on average spend 26 years in retirement with the average age of retirement being 47 years old.

However, individual real-life experiences vary greatly from the averages taken above, given different factors such as wealth, geography and the prevalence of diseases.

As life expectancy rises, some countries want to increase the retirement age in the future. This includes the United Kingdom, where the government has signalled that it hopes to keep the proportion of adult life spent in retirement constant with the average over the last 10 years.

In many countries, you can retire before the age set by government pensions, and some nations have a flexible retirement age – meaning pensions can be taken out within a certain range. This includes Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the United States, according to the Finnish Centre for Pensions.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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