A new government cabinet is in place in the Republic of Congo. It comes after the appointment of a new Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, with 11 new ministers including Denis Christel Sassou, son of the Congolese president.
Denis Christel Sassou will oversee the management of “international cooperation and the promotion of public-private partnership”.
Reactions are now following the appointment of Christel Sassou in his father Dennis Sassou Nguesso ‘s sixth term.
Noteworthy in the new cabinet is the recall of the former Minister of Finance, Rigobert Roger Andely, nicknamed ‘red bic’, having built a reputation during his tenure between 2002 and 2005
Also in the cabinet is a member of the opposition, appointed as Minister of Energy and Hydraulics. This is for some could be a way to pacify the aggrieved Congolese opposition who denounced the conduct of the last elections held in March.
The minister, Honoré Sayi’s has however been suspended by his party, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), over the appointment. The UPADS claims they had not been consulted before hand.
News Analysts say the task ahead for the new government cabinet is huge, saying rising public debt, negotiations with the IMF, water, electricity and the situation of pensioners, are some of the challenges that await the government team.
Somalia’s prime minister has invited regional leaders to a new round of negotiations to try and resolve a protracted feud over elections that sparked violence in the capital.
A government spokesman said Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble had invited the leaders of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states to roundtable talks later this month.
The president, better known by his nickname Farmajo, on Sunday tasked his prime minister with reaching out to rivals and overseeing the negotiations, a key opposition demand.
Somalia is experiencing its worst political crisis in years, with fighting erupting in Mogadishu last week after the president extended his mandate by two years without going to elections.
Opposition fighters remain in the capital even after President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed backed away from the mandate extension at the weekend and agreed to hold a fresh vote.
Presidential spokesman, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, told reporters the prime minister is committed to having everything resolved peacefully and to prepare for the upcoming national reconciliation conference
Some fighters in opposition strongholds have refused to leave Mogadishu following the clashes that forced tens of thousands of civilians from their homes.
Farmajo struck a deal with the states in September that paved the way for indirect elections before the government’s term expired in February.
That agreement collapsed as Farmajo and the leaders of two states, Puntland and Jubaland, squabbled over the terms.
The Eselu of Iseluland Oba Ebenezer Akinyemi of Yewa North Local Government Area in Ogun State, has asked the National Assembly to facilitate the release of Leah Sharibu and others in kidnappers’ dens before criminalising payment of ransom.
The monarch described the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which has scaled second reading at the Senate as a misplaced priority, unpopular and needless.
Oba Akinyemi frowned at the move by the National Assembly to criminalise payment of ransom in the country, saying governments at all levels have failed in their responsibilities to protect the lives and property of Nigerian citizens.
The Senate had on Wednesday considered the bill that prohibits the payment and receipt of ransom for the release of any person kidnapped, imprisoned, or wrongfully confined with a view to slamming Nigerians who pay ransom to kidnappers with 15 years imprisonment.
Akinyemi said this in an open letter addressed to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, noting, “the proposed Bill is not what should be considered at the moment when the governments have failed in their duties to protect the citizens.
“When the security apparatus of the country is in shambles, and the government wants to sanction and punish ransom payers, will the captive now remain in the kidnappers’ den?”
The monarch, however, advised that if such a bill is to be considered, the security apparatus must have been tightened and the captives should be rescued.
The letter read in part, “If we want the Bill to be popular, the Federal Government should first rescue Leah Sharibu and other hundreds of innocent Nigerians who are still being held in kidnappers’ dens in all the nooks and crannies of our country, Nigeria.
“With all sense of honesty, I totally condemn the menace of kidnapping that has now ravaged our dear country, Nigeria. As a patriotic citizen, I will always support any steps that governments at all levels take with the view to ridding our country of all manners of criminalities, including the crime of kidnapping that is sadly gaining more currency/popularity in our country these days.
“However, I feel the Bill that is proposing a 15-year jail term for payers of ransom to kidnappers is a misplaced priority, unpopular and needless at this precious time because governments at all levels have failed in their responsibility to protect the lives and property of Nigerian citizens due mainly to the poor security architecture in the entire country.
“If families of kidnapped persons cannot pay ransom due to the proposed Bill and government too does not have an effective security architecture to rescue the victims, it then means that the victims of kidnapping will be in the kidnappers’ dens till eternity.
“Lives of some of them may even be in danger in the hands of their abductors. Will that not amount to double jeopardy for the victims’ families? I am sure the children of the proponents of the Bill are not in this insecure country.
“To me, the first thing we should do is to develop a security strategy that will make the Nigeria Police Force and other Security Forces possess the competence and capacity to aggressively confront the crime of kidnapping in Nigeria.
“If we want the Bill to be popular, the Federal Government should first rescue Leah Sharibu and other hundreds of innocent Nigerians who are still being held in kidnappers’ dens in all the nooks and crannies of our country, Nigeria.”
Obi Emelonye’s Ibrahim Babajida biopic ‘Badamasi'(Portrait of a General) is set to open UK cinemas as the first red carpet event post Covid-19 lockdown.
The event confirmed for June 12 will hold at the O2 Arena, Emelonye confirmed via an Instagram post.
“The cinemas are open in the UK and the first red carpet film Premiere anywhere in the UK is for an African film. BADAMASI (Portrait of a General) premieres on June 12 and tells the compelling story of a great country and a powerful man in need of healing.”
Shot in 2018, in Lagos, Minna, Abuja and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the film portrays the former Nigerian military head of state as a man with flaws but a deep sense of patriotism.
It stars Enyinna Nwigwe as Ibrahim Babaginda alongside Charles Inojie, Sani Danja, Yakubu Mohammed, Okey Bakassi, Kalu Ikeagwu, Julius Agwu and Erick Didie.
A major showdown looms between the Ministry of Education and private school owners in Nakuru after the government ordered closure of 30 learning institutions.
Education officials on Thursday shut down schools in Nakuru Town West Sub County for allegedly operating illegally.
Among the institutions shut are three primary schools and 27 Early Childhood Development centers.
According to the Nakuru Town West Deputy County Commissioner Michael Lesimam, the schools which have poor infrastructure are not registered.
The administrator further said the schools do not have the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) number since they are not registered by the Ministry of Education.
The education officials established that learners sitting their Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) examinations in the schools are likely to lose their results because the institutions will not be able to relay them to the Kenya National Examinations Council.
At least 1000 learners will be affected by the closure of the institutions, however Lesimam revealed that the learners from the affected schools will be redistributed to public learning institutions in the region.
Most of the affected schools are run by churches and Non-Government Organizations in the slum areas of Nakuru Town West.
The Nation learnt that some of the schools shut down were among institutions closed in 2019, but their owners moved to court and obtained stay orders allowing them to operate.
However, late last year, the court ruled that the schools are illegal.
The administrator warned parents against allowing their children to continue learning in the institutions.
Treasures spanning thousands of years of Paris history will get a fresh airing in the city from next week, with pistols from the French revolution showcased alongside a shoe thought to have been lost in flight by guillotined queen Marie Antoinette.
Long a hit with tourists as an introduction to Paris and its tumultuous past, the Carnavalet museum is due to reopen after four years of renovations at a time when international travel is still largely on hold due to the pandemic.
The 58 million euros ($71 million) revamp involved an extension of the exhibition space, including by opening up underground vaults. The building, in the Marais district, dates back to the 16th century and became a museum in 1880.
It will now house 625,000 works – many brought out of storage for the first time – and which include paintings, toiletry cases and tea sets used by Napoleon, early photos of the Eiffel Tower, and gold coins from the 2nd century B.C.
Other star attractions include a canoe from the Neolothic age and 12th century gargoyle from Notre-Dame cathedral.
Visitors can also wander through a reconstruction of writer Marcel Proust’s bedroom, with his real furniture and his coat on display.
Many museums in France began to reopen on May 19 after remaining under lock and key since last October due to the pandemic, forcing some exhibits to close early.
The Carnavalet also hopes to retain its appeal for locals.
“It’s the home of Parisians,” said architect Francois Roussillon, who conceived the overhaul. “It’s a museum you can live in, a bit like dropping in on a friend for diner. You can go one day and eat this, go back and eat that.”
The life story of actor, singer and all-around icon Cher is bound for the big screen.
The Oscar winner announced plans for a biopic. The film’s screenplay, she tweeted, will be written by Eric Roth, who won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for 1994’s “Forrest Gump” and was nominated for his work on 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and 2018’s “A Star Is Born.”
Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman, who produced the ABBA movie musical “Mamma Mia!” and its sequel, have also joined the creative team, she added.
Craymer confirmed the plans in a statement.
“Gary and I are thrilled to be working with Cher again and this time bringing her empowering and true life odyssey to the big screen. One cannot help but be drawn to and inspired by Cher’s larger than life talent, fortitude, unique wit, warmth and vision,” she said, according to Deadline. “Her unparalleled success in music, film and TV have inspired generations. We could not be happier to tell her story to cinema audiences.”
Superstar biopics are, of course, a hot Hollywood commodity these days.
There are countless moments in Cher’s six-decade, record-smashing career that are ripe for dramatization. There’s her rise to fame in the 1960s and ’70s alongside former husband Sonny Bono, followed by her storied film career that culminated in an Oscar win for 1998’s “Moonstruck.”
Also, there’s her more recent reinvention as a 21st-century dance floor diva, spearheaded by the 1998 smash “Believe.”
When a fan griped that they’d been waiting for the biopic for “50 years,” Cher playfully shot back as only Cher could.
Cher’s life story was previously adapted as the 2019 musical “The Cher Show,” in which a trio of actors portrayed her at various ages.
Stephanie J. Block, whose stage credits include “Wicked” and “Falsettos,” received a Tony Award for playing the “Star” version of Cher on Broadway.
Simona Halep, the 2018 French Open champion, announced Friday she has withdrawn from this year’s tournament because she has failed to recover from a calf injury.
“Unfortunately the tear in my left calf muscle needs more time to recover and the timeline is just too short,” said Halep, the reigning Wimbledon champion.
Halep sustained the injury in her second-round match at the Rome Open on May 12, and the world number three has deemed the recovery time too tight to be fit for the May 30 – June 13 Roland Garros.
“Withdrawing from a Grand Slam goes against all my instincts and aspirations as an athlete, but it is the right and only decision to make,” she said.
“The thought of not being in Paris fills me with sadness, but I will focus my energy on recovery, staying positive and getting back on court as soon as it is safe to do so.
“Roland Garros 2022, I’m coming for you A bientot.”
At dawn, Mame Mor Anta Ly washes his chestnut-coloured horse beneath a noisy overpass on the outskirts of Senegal’s bustling capital.
Dozens of other horses are tethered to the ground around him, feeding from troughs improvised from oil drums or rusting bathtubs.
Ly, 40, is waiting to be hired for the day to transport iron rods or bags of cement on his horse-drawn cart.
“Sometimes I wait all day,” he said, prayer beads dangling from his neck.
Hailing from a farming region about a hundred miles (160 kilometres) south of the seaside capital, Ly is one of a growing number of rural-dwellers who come to Dakar looking for work with their horses in tow.
Horses are ubiquitous in the booming West African city of 3.5 million people, where carts weave through traffic-clogged streets and squeeze down narrow sandy alleyways.
Drivers carry goods and people at a cheap rate, and increasingly, also collect garbage in neighbourhoods unserved by rubbish trucks.
The work is a lifeline to many rural poor who normally earn little apart from the harvest season, according to Alphonse Sene, the director of equine development at Senegal’s livestock ministry.
He estimated the number of cart drivers in Dakar at about 7,000 — and rising.
“It’s growing because there’s an employment problem in rural areas,” he said.
Though part of the fabric of the city, many motorists and municipal administrators view carts as a nuisance that cause congestion and accidents.
There is a risk municipal authorities will eventually ban them, according to Sene.
Cart driver Malick Seck, standing with his white mare outside a construction supplies depot, said he both struggles to make money and faces hostility from other road users.
“No one considers us. People think we’re low class,” said the 45-year-old.
Drivers interviewed said that police can move them off roads arbitrarily and that residents place obstacles in the city’s rare open spaces to stop drivers from keeping their horses there.
“We are insulted all day long and mistreated,” said cart driver Assane Ndiaye, echoing a widely held grievance.
In a bid to ease pressure in urban areas, Senegal passed legislation in 2016 requiring drivers to have permits and tail-lights, and limiting when they are allowed to operate.
But in practice the rules are ignored. Responsibility for enforcing them is also split between three government ministries.
Sene, the director of equine development, acknowledged the disarray.
But he said that his department is conducting a study of the horse-transport sector in Dakar with a view to revising the legislation.
With about one million horses and donkeys, Senegal has an unusually high equine population for the region, said Emmanuel Boure Sarr, from the animal-welfare NGO Brooke.
“Horse-drawn transport is a reality that cannot be ignored,” he said, underlining the economic importance of the sector.
British retail sales surged last month as non-essential stores reopened from virus lockdown, sparking a boom in clothing demand, data showed Friday.
Sales by volume soared 9.2 percent in April from March as Britain’s economy cranked back into action.
“Retail sales volumes grew sharply … reflecting the effect of the easing of coronavirus restrictions,” the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
Demand for clothing rocketed by almost 70 percent, aided by good weather as consumers splashed their cash on new outfits after one year of lockdowns.
Easing travel restrictions prompted a similar spike in demand for motor fuel.
“Pent-up demand built up during lockdown continues to be released as the reopening of non-essential retail offered the public a welcomed opportunity to visit many of their favourite shop,” said Helen Dickinson, head of the British Retail Consortium.
“Improved weather during April meant greater sales of fashion, particularly in outerwear and knitwear, as the public renewed their wardrobe and made plans to meet friends and family outdoors.”
Overall sales rocketed 42.4 percent compared with April last year, which was the first full month of the initial UK lockdown at the start of the crisis.
Online sales boomed during lockdowns as consumers were forced to shop via their smartphones and computer screens, soaring by 56 percent compared to April 2019 before the pandemic struck.
Britain is exiting lockdowns at a gradual pace, allowing the economy to further recover from pandemic fallout.
At the same time, analysts are fearful that reopening economies will spark a global inflationary spike.
British inflation soared last month to 1.5 percent, the highest level since the early stages of the pandemic, separate data showed earlier this week.
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