360post: 2017 at 01:15PM

Showing posts with label 2017 at 01:15PM. Show all posts

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

British FM promises help for justice reform in Gambia

British foreign minister Boris Johnson / AFP PHOTO / EMMANUEL DUNAND

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson promised support for justice reform in The Gambia Tuesday after the new government declared it would overhaul its prisons after shocking footage was released of conditions inside.

Johnson met President Adama Barrow and Interior Minister Mai Fatty to reset ties with the impoverished West African nation after years of tension with former president Yahya Jammeh.

A British special advisor will be appointed to aid the justice ministry and attorney-general as The Gambia reforms a sector tarred by allegations of rights abuses, a diplomatic source told AFP.

Fatty led a tour of The Gambia’s Mile Two prison on Monday for local journalists that revealed concrete cells in almost complete darkness where prisoners were living in squalor, and apologised on camera for the conditions.

Johnson has hailed the December elections that saw Barrow unseat Jammeh from 22 years in power, saying they “highlight the continuing strengthening of democracy in West Africa”.

The visit was his first to Africa as Britain’s top diplomat.

His talks with Barrow also cemented moves by The Gambia to rejoin the Commonwealth group of former British colonies, Johnson told journalists.

“President Barrow is determined to take Gambia back to the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth is ready to welcome Gambia back,” Johnson said, saying he would do whatever possible to “speed up” the process.

Jammeh frequently railed against Britain’s colonial rule of the tiny nation, and Johnson is the first British foreign minister to visit since independence in 1965.

By contrast, Barrow worked as a security guard in Britain when he was younger and has made no secret of his wish to rekindle ties.

The Gambia has also just notified the United Nations it will rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), reversing another controversial Jammeh move from last year.

– Controversial comments –

Jammeh withdrew his nation from the Commonwealth in 2013, calling it “an extension of colonialism”, but Johnson has his own history of controversy with Britain’s former territories in Africa.

In a news column published in 2002, Johnson characterised the Commonwealth as having “crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies,” to welcome Queen Elizabeth II, using a derogatory term for black people that caused outrage.

He also parodied reaction to Tony Blair’s arrival in Congo saying that “the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down”.

The comments came back to haunt him when he ran for London mayor in 2008, and then again when he was named foreign secretary last year after Britain’s shock Brexit vote.

Gambian journalists had questions vetted for a brief press conference with Barrow in The Gambia and could not question him about the comments, they told AFP.

In a show of confidence in the Gambian tourist industry, which is dominated by British sunseekers, Johnson took a commercial flight to Banjul, and also met with Tourism Minister Hamat Bah.

Tourists were flown out of the country en masse in January after Jammeh declared a state of emergency when he lost the election to Barrow but refused to stand down.

On Wednesday morning, Johnson will head to Ghana to meet President Nana Akufo-Addo and visit the Blue Skies company, a juice-maker which has received financial support from Britain.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2le7y51

Monday, 13 February 2017

NNPC announces measures to sustain products supply nationwide

http://ift.tt/2l8D2cB

NNPC Headquarters

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced measures to sustain the supply of petrol, diesel, and kerosene nationwide.

Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC said in a statement in Abuja on Monday that the decision was taken at an emergency meeting on the corporation’s downstream operations.

“These measures include: increasing the February supply of petrol by six additional cargoes to the existing national petrol sufficiency of over 32 days. “An immediate importation of three additional diesel cargoes before the end of February.

“And an order for massive 250 trucks per day loading of diesel and Kerosene from across the three NNPC refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri,’’ Ughamadu said.

Ughamadu said NNPC would transmit the full list of marketers involved in off-taking diesel and kerosene to the Department of State Services.

“This will allow for appropriate follow-up by the security agency to forestall possibility of any stakeholders engaging in foul play.

“The move to provide additional petrol cargoes of 37,000 tonnes each is to give further comfort and stability to the robust petrol sufficiency nationwide,’’ Ughamadu said.

He said other measures the corporation had taken was an expansion of daily truck load-out of petrol, diesel and kerosene, even during weekends to ensure improved products delivery to hinterlands.

“The corporation would provide additional marine logistics, all geared toward improving products movements from offshore to land, to cater for additional PMS supply nationwide,”he said.

Ughamadu charged downstream operators to immediately implement measures that would sustain adequate supply and distribution of petrol, diesel and kerosene to every nook and cranny of the country.

“NNPC has also made concerted efforts to pay the outstanding bill owed Duke Oil, the corporation’s trading arm, for products importation, even as it has put in place modalities for transparent accounting practice,’’ he said.

He said that as part of measures to sustain products supply stability across the country, NNPC planned to obtain from the Central Bank of Nigeria, a diesel Foreign Exchange (Forex) intervention to marketers, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Associations.

He also said the corporation would convert the existing issued 144million dollars petrol Forex intervention to AGO (kerosene).

Ughamadu said that NNPC had also developed a comprehensive and clear deadline for the completion of the Atlas Cove-Mosimi pipeline and commenced shipment of diesel to Calabar.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l1qdhO

Sunday, 5 February 2017

With Trump travel ban still blocked, travelers head to US…Read full details

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International travelers pass police officers keeping demonstrators and counter demonstrators apart during protests in support of a ruling by a federal judge in Seattle that grants a nationwide temporary restraining order against the presidential order to ban travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries, at Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on February 4, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. David McNew/Getty Images/AFP<br />DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

A US appeals court has rejected a government request to reinstate President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration ban, prompting travelers from seven mainly Muslim nations to hurry to enter the country before the next legal twist.

The early-morning ruling from a federal appeals court was the latest chapter in a saga which began on January 27, when Trump issued a blanket ban on all refugees, and travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Trump had not commented on the appeals ruling by mid-afternoon and was uncharacteristically silent on Twitter but Vice President Mike Pence, who made the rounds on Sunday’s political talk shows, called the decision “frustrating.”

“We will move very quickly,” Pence told Fox News. “We are going to win the arguments because we will take the steps necessary to protect the country, which the president of the United States has the authority to do.”

On Saturday, the Manhattan property mogul had unleashed a string of fiery tweets defending his policy and attacking federal judge James Robart, who on Friday blocked the ban nationwide pending a wider legal review.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump wrote on Twitter, in rare criticism of a judge by a sitting president.

Asked by multiple networks whether Trump’s comment about Robart was out of line, Pence defended his boss, saying he was not questioning the judge’s legitimacy but simply expressing his disagreement with the ruling.

“Every president has a right to be critical of the other branches of the federal government,” Pence told CBS News.

– ‘Irreparable harm’ –

Trump’s executive order slapped a blanket ban on entry for nationals of the seven countries for 90 days and barred all refugees for 120 days. Refugees from Syria were blocked indefinitely.

In an appeal filed late Saturday, the Justice Department said that suspending the ban was causing “irreparable harm” to the American public.

It said Robart’s ruling had run afoul of constitutional separation of powers, and “second-guesses the president’s national security judgment.”

But in the early hours of Sunday morning, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request calling for the travel ban to be immediately reinstated, without offering a reason.

The court asked the states of Washington and Minnesota, which had filed the original suit over the ban, to provide additional documents by 0759 GMT Monday.

And the Justice Department was given until 2300 GMT Monday to complete its legal dossier.

– ‘I’m ecstatic’ –

Meanwhile, in line with Robart’s ruling, travelers from the targeted countries with valid visas began arriving on American soil, while others prepared to set off for the United States.

In New York, 33-year-old Sudanese doctor Kamal Fadlalla rejoiced — after a week blocked in his home country, he was back in the Big Apple with friends and colleagues.

“It feels great,” Fadlalla told AFP on Sunday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. “It was a tough week actually.”

In Syria, a 25-year-old law graduate who asked not to be named said he was driving to Beirut on Sunday to catch a flight to Amman and then a connecting flight to New York.

“I jumped up and haven’t been able to sleep since. I’m ecstatic,” the man told AFP.

In Iran, a 30-year-old woman told AFP she had rebooked her tickets to the United States and was ready to travel late Sunday to see her brother.

“Until yesterday, I was completely disappointed. We have some new hope after this news, but it’s 50-50. I am willing to take this risk,” said the woman from the city of Shiraz, who did not want to give her name.

The State Department has said visa holders from the seven countries are allowed to travel to the US as long as their documents have not been “physically canceled.”

The department had earlier said up to 60,000 people had their visas revoked as a result of Trump’s order.

– ‘Contemptuous’ –

The restrictions have fueled numerous protests at home and abroad — from London to Washington and Palm Beach, where Trump was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago retreat — now dubbed the “Winter White House.”

Hundreds of expatriate workers rallied Sunday in Hong Kong — many of them women from the Philippines or mainly Muslim Indonesia.

Also on Sunday, dozens of Trump supporters rallied in front of Trump Tower in New York, urging Americans to give him a chance — but they ended up in a face-off with a dozen counter-protesters.

“He’s been in office less than three weeks — he’s entitled to have a fair shot and to run the government the way he wants to,” said Cindy Grosz, one of the co-organizers.