Turkey’s Erdogan says Germany ‘aiding’ terror’…Read full details

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan / AFP PHOTO / ADEM ALTAN

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Berlin of “aiding and harbouring” terror after German authorities banned rallies courting support from Turkish expatriates for a constitutional change to expand Erdogan’s powers.

Ankara and Berlin were locked in acrimony and Erdogan also claimed a detained correspondent working for Germany’s Die Welt newspaper was a spy, an accusation Germany said “makes no sense.”

“They need to be put on trial for aiding and harbouring terror,” Erdogan said, criticising German authorities who had allowed outlawed Kurdish leaders to speak but had blocked rallies where Turkish ministers sought to address the Turkish community.

The president also claimed that Die Welt correspondent Deniz Yucel, who was detained on Monday on terror-related charges, was a “German agent.”

Turks vote on April 16 on whether to create a presidential system — a change that the government says will ensure political stability, but which critics say will drag Turkey into one-man rule.

In the runup to the referendum, controversy has flared over politicians’ trips to Germany, where they have been seeking “Yes” votes from the millions of people of Turkish descent.

One such event was a rally by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in the western city of Oberhausen.

On Thursday, local authorities blocked rallies by two more Turkish ministers, prompting a furious response from Ankara which promptly summoned the German envoy to protest.

An incensed Erdogan, who was prevented from adressing a rally in Cologne by video link after a failed coup in July last year, lashed out at Germany.

“They allow Cemil Bayik to speak from (the) Kandil” mountains in Iraq, he said, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also accused German officials of failing to “honour democracy” and of allowing “terrorists” to speak but denying the same right to Erdogan.

“They don’t want Turkey to campaign here, they are working for a ‘No’,” he said. “They want to get in the way of a strong Turkey.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Turkey’s accusations, saying the decisions were “taken by municipalities, and as a matter of principle, we apply freedom of expression in Germany”.

Cavusoglu and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, speaking by phone, agreed to meet next Wednesday, a senior Turkish official said.

– Another rally cancelled –

As the political fallout continued, a third German town — Frechen on the outskirts of Cologne — scrapped a rally that had been scheduled for Sunday, as the venue “excludes political events,” police said.

And the western town of Gaggenau, which had cancelled a rally scheduled for Thursday by Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, said it received a bomb threat early Friday.

“The caller cited the cancellation of the event with the Turkish justice minister as a reason,” local official Dieter Spannagel told AFP.

Cologne city authorities also withdrew permission for the UETD to use a hall on Sunday for a speech by Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci. But Zeybekci said he would still go ahead with the visit.

“Even if they don’t allow (it), I will go from house to house to meet with our citizens in Germany,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

– ‘German agent’ –

Tensions have erupted previously over German criticism of the crackdown in Turkey following last year’s failed coup, which has seen more than 100,000 people arrested, dismissed or sacked for alleged links to the plotters or to Kurdish militants.

The Die Welt correspondent was charged on Monday by an Istanbul court with spreading terrorist propaganda and inciting hatred.

“That person had hidden at the German consulate for a month as a PKK representative, as a German agent,” Erdogan said, adding that Germany had initially refused to hand him over for trial.

Speaking earlier in the day, Merkel said Berlin was right to criticise Ankara over press freedom.

“I also think that it was right of us to criticise any restrictions on press freedom.”

Germany is home to the biggest population of Turks outside Turkey with around three million in the country of Turkish origin, the legacy of a massive “guest worker” programme in the 1960s-70s.

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The Biography Of Halima Dangote [Age, Life Profile & Net Worth]

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Halima Dangote is a Nigerian business woman and the first daughter of Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote. Unlike some wards of the rich, children of the richest black man living, Aliko Dangote, who are all girls, have been able to keep a low profile that they are neither seen nor known. However, one of the four girls appears to be popular but even at that, she’s not a regular face that is often sighted at high octane or any other public engagements for that matter. According to those who are in the know, Halima is very much occupied with what earns her a living.

Despite her busy schedule, it was a rare experience when she recently put everything aside to identify with her long time friend,who was celebrating her fifteen-year of holding her own in the fashion world. Though, unusual of her but those who were there revealed Halima mingled well with every other person who came to felicitate with Folake Folarin–Coker of Tiffany Amber fame.

Halima, who is married with two kids, is not a sit at home type but she’s actively involved as the group Executive Director, Sales & Marketing at Sublime Group, where her husband, Sulimon Sanni Bello, holds sway.

She also functions as an active director in her father’s conglomerate, Dangote Group. Halima is a marketing graduate of America Intercontinental University, London. She raised the bar at Webster Business School, London immediately after her first degree to obtain masters of Business Administration.

After her wedding in 2008, not much has been heard about her. But just like the profile of her hubby, Suleiman Sani Bello, is rising, Halima, the daughter of billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, has proved that she is not your regular sit-at-home wife. She is Group Executive Director, Sales & Marketing, Sublime Group, where Suleiman holds sway. She is also one of the directors at the Dangote Group. She has been stepping out with her billionaire father on business trips.

Recently, she accompanied her father to the signing of the deal on the construction of a refinery. The mother of two was also spotted beside her father at the gala held in honour of the exclusive list of 100 influential people by TIME magazine in New York City.

Halima is a “marketing” graduate from the American Intercontinental University London. She proceeded to Webster Business School London immediately after her first degree, where she enrolled and obtained a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

* An Uzomedia Biography

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Ya Baba (Club Remix) by Zack Knight [Mp3 + Lyrics]

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Ya Baba (Club Remix) by Zack Knight Mp3 download

Album: Ya Baba (Club Remix)

Singer: Zack Knight

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Label: Mr-Jatt Production

Released: 01 Mar,2017

Duration: 02:16

Description: Ya Baba (Club Remix) Zack Knight New Punjabi Song Download Free. Music Given by Zack Knight & Lyrics By Zack Knight Music Copyright of Mr-Jatt Production. Ya Baba Song Lyrics. Zack Knight New Songs.

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WATCH/DOWNLOAD VIDEO: Kwesta – Ngiyaz’fela Ngawe ft. Thabsie

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Music video by Kwesta performing Ngiyaz’fela Ngawe featuring Thabsie off his highly successful 2016 album DAKAR II.

The lovely video is directed by Uprooted Media. Watch below and get the audio here

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Germany bans internet-connected ‘spying’ doll Cayla

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This file photo taken on November 05, 2014 shows the talking doll "My Friend Cayla" displayed at the DreamToys toy fair in central London, on November 5, 2014. German regulators have banned an internet-connected doll called "My Friend Cayla" that can chat with children, warning on February 17, 2017 that it was a de facto "spying device".<br />LEON NEAL / AFP

German regulators have banned an internet-connected doll called “My Friend Cayla” that can chat with children, warning Friday that it was a de facto “spying device”.

Parents were urged to disable the interactive toy by the Federal Network Agency which enforces bans on surveillance devices.

“Items that conceal cameras or microphones and that are capable of transmitting a signal, and therefore can transmit data without detection, compromise people’s privacy,” said the agency’s head, Jochen Homann.

“This applies in particular to children’s toys. The Cayla doll has been banned in Germany. This is also to protect the most vulnerable in our society.”

The doll works by sending a child’s audio question wirelessly to an app on a digital device, which translates it into text and searches the internet for an answer, then sends back a response that is voiced by the doll.

The German regulators in a statement warned that anything a child says, or other people’s conversations, could be recorded and transmitted without parents’ knowledge.

“A company could also use the toy to advertise directly to the child or the parents,” it said.

“Moreover, if the manufacturer has not adequately protected the wireless connection, the toy can be used by anyone in the vicinity to listen in on conversations undetected.”

Genesis Toys, which manufactures the doll, says on its website that it “is committed to protecting your and your family’s personal information.

“Our objective is to ensure that our products and services are safe and enjoyable for our customers”.

It also says Cayla “is programmed to not utter, display or say words or images that would be inappropriate for children to see or hear”.

The company regularly reviews “encryption and physical security measures” to guard against unauthorised access to customers’ personal information.

But it warns on its website that “unfortunately no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure”.

The regulation agency added that it would “inspect other interactive toys and, if necessary, will take further action”.

The European Consumer Organisation said it welcomed the decision but criticised the fact consumers would struggle to get compensation.

Its head Monique Goyens said that “if connected toys, such as this speaking doll, can be hacked to spy on or talk to children, they must be banned.”

She added that “EU product laws need to catch up with digital developments to deal with threats such as hacking, data fraud or spying”.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l2RPoz

No pre-election contacts with Russia, says Trump

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US President Donald Trump arrives at a meeting with members of Congress in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 16, 2017.<br />NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP

President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that neither he nor his campaign team had contacts with Russian officials in the run-up to last year’s US election, contradicting an explosive report which he blasted as “fake news.”

Trump also defended Michael Flynn, the national security advisor whose resignation he demanded and received this week, saying Flynn “wasn’t wrong” for holding pre-inauguration phone calls with the Russian ambassador about US sanctions policy.

Instead, Trump accused members of the US intelligence community of breaking the law by leaking information about the calls.

The new president, in the midst of a turbulent week of back-and-forth accusations about contacts with Russia and his battle with the intelligence community, addressed the concerns during an extraordinary White House press conference.

Asked whether he or anyone on his staff had engaged in contacts with Russia prior to the election, Trump proclaimed: “No. Nobody that I know of.”

“I have nothing to do with Russia,” Trump said. “The whole Russia thing is a ruse.”

It was a full-throated denunciation of a bombshell report by the New York Times which said that intercepted calls and phone records show Trump aides were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials well before the US elections.

“They weren’t in Russia. They never made a phone call to Russia. They never received a phone call. It’s all fake news,” Trump said.

Trump stressed that the story centered instead on inappropriate action by US intelligence agencies, as he stepped up his earlier Thursday attacks in which he vowed to catch “low-life leakers” of potentially classified information that led to the ouster of his national security advisor.

“The leaks are real. The news is fake,” he declared.

– Billionaire’s review? –
“Those are criminal leaks” by people angry about Democrat Hillary Clinton’s loss, he later told reporters. “I think you’ll see it stopping because now we have our people in.”

The latest salvoes came amid reports that Trump plans to name New York billionaire Stephen Feinberg to lead a sweeping review of US intelligence agencies, raising fears of a bid to curtail their independence.

Trump decried Flynn’s treatment at a news conference Wednesday despite having fired the retired general for deceiving Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador.

Earlier, he pointed the finger at the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance, and the FBI, which handles counter-intelligence probes, as possible sources of the leaks.

But the drumbeat of revelations has infuriated Democrats and alarmed Republican leaders, wary of Trump’s overtures toward Russia.

“It is a cloud over the White House,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican hawk who has called for in-depth investigations, said Wednesday.

Trump’s repeated attacks on the intelligence community alarmed Democrats.

“That news conference was a 1 hour, 17 minute argument for why this Congress needs to start taking its oversight role much more seriously,” House Democrat Mark Takano tweeted.

Trump’s stance on leaks has flipped since last year’s presidential campaign when he dismissed as a “joke” charges that Russia was behind damaging leaks of hacked Clinton campaign emails.

“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” he said at a news conference in Florida last July.

By January, US intelligence had concluded that those leaks were part of a wider campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin to try to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. Moscow denies any involvement.

– Mutual distrust –
A sense of mutual distrust has now pervaded the president’s relationship with the intelligence community.

As president-elect, Trump ruffled feathers by giving short shrift to his daily intelligence briefings, and outraged the CIA director by likening the intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany after the leak of a dossier that made unsubstantiated claims that Russia held compromising information on Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that US intelligence officials have withheld from Trump sensitive information on sources and methods because of concerns it could be leaked or compromised.

Trump called the report “disgraceful” and baseless.

The Times said the planned intelligence review by Feinberg, a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management who has no national security experience, was seen as a way of injecting a Trump loyalist into the intelligence community.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has moved gingerly on Russia, sending top officials to Europe to reassure NATO allies while making its opening official contacts with the Russians.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Bonn, and said Washington is prepared to work with Russia “when we can find practical areas of cooperation.”

In Brussels, Defense Secretary James Mattis said the Pentagon was not ready “right now” for military cooperation with Moscow “but our political leaders will engage and try to find common ground or a way forward.”

Putin, meanwhile, called for Russian intelligence agencies to bolster their cooperation with the Americans in the fight against terrorism.

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British FM promises help for justice reform in Gambia…Read full details

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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.

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Spanish PM Rajoy re-elected head of his party

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Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy smiles during the XVIII Popular Party three day congress in Madrid on February 11, 2017 that will renew Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as party leader. Rajoy's re-election, in a single candidate ballot, coincides with the announcement of high prison terms for corruption for entrepreneurs and former politicians linked to the ruling formation by the case 'Gurtel'.<br />CURTO DE LA TORRE / AFP

Spain’s ruling conservatives on Saturday voted to keep Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as their leader, after a wave of high-profile corruption scandals threatened to push the party out of power.

Rajoy, who has led the Popular Party (PP) since 2004, was re-elected at the party’s congress, just as far-left upstart Podemos held its own gathering.

No candidate challenged Rajoy’s bid to remain at the PP’s helm. Defence Minister Maria Dolores de Cospedal meanwhile held on to her position as party deputy.

“We don’t want any revolutions or sudden jolts,” Rajoy said, as he put forward his candidacy. “We want to govern with prudence… and reliability.”

Rajoy’s popularity sank in 2015 and 2016, as his party was hit by a string of corruption scandals.

At the end of 2015, the PP lost its parliamentary super majority, with the number of MPs falling from 186 to 123 out of 350.

In May 2015, the party also lost a string of important regions, including Valencia in the east, and cities including Madrid.

The PP’s losses helped centre-right upstart Ciudadanos make gains, as it condemned the scandals tainting the ruling party.

Ciudadanos has consistently called for Rajoy to step down, refusing to forge any alliance with the PP until he does — even though there is no evidence of Rajoy’s involvement in any of the corruption files.

After a months-long political standstill, the PP in June 2016 won a parliamentary election and swept back into power.

Rajoy has been a PP member since 1977, rising through the party ranks until he became prime minister in 2011.

The PP, once named the Popular Alliance, was founded by ministers of former dictator Francisco Franco.

It has since adopted a pro-EU, conservative programme.

Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2l5FZKM