Detained in Cameroon's hospitals

Estelle Koulman has recently celebrated her first birthday - and her first taste of freedom as she spent the first 11 months of her life imprisoned - in a Cameroonian hospital.

Shortly after she was born in a ward in Ngousso, on the outskirts of Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, she was operated on for a bowel problem.
The little girl made a quick recovery, but she and her mother Germaine Abeboulouguiye were unable to return home as the bill came to $600 (about £375).
The government hospital refused to release them until the medical fee was settled.

Germaine Abeboulouguiye and her baby were recently freed after a paper highlighted their plight

But the family was broke - Ms Abeboulouguiye was unemployed, her partner, who did have a job, had abandoned her when she became pregnant and her parents were retired, living by subsistence farming.
"There is a lot of stress and complications - the atmosphere is not good to help raise a baby," Ms Abeboulouguiye told the BBC during her detention.
Ms Abeboulouguiye's mother came to visit at the time - bringing food and other essentials, but otherwise they were prevented from leaving the hospital.
When Cameroon's Le Jour newspaper reported their case, it caused outrage in Cameroon and a local charity intervened and paid part of the bill.
The authorities, embarrassed by the furore, waived the rest of the fee and mother and baby were finally allowed home after 11 months of detention in a white-walled hospital ward.
They are the most extreme case of the government's policy to get patients to help fund healthcare.
It makes up about 70% of the hospital budgets - and patients are expected to cover the rest.
Some free services are carried out, like malaria diagnosis for children under five.

If my family members can't help, where else should I turn to?”

Mary Akwa Patient in Buea Regional Hospital

'Held back'

But now it is common for patients who cannot pay their bills for other treatments to be detained until their relatives pay up some or all of the debt.

It was not a government policy that was ever announced, but it has come in gradually over the last five years.
Three weeks after Mary Akwa was admitted to Buea Regional Hospital for a stomach problem she was unable to find money for her bill.
"If my family members can't help, where else should I turn to?" she asked, clearly distressed.
The health authorities in Cameroon declined to comment on the allegations.
A doctor at Hospital Laquintinie in the commercial capital Douala, says the government policy brings with it difficult choices - and sometimes treatment is withheld.
"If patients don't pay me, I can't treat them," he told the BBC, requesting anonymity.
However, Dr George Enow Orock, director of Buea Regional Hospital, says while some patients may be "held back" to pay their bills they are never denied assistance.
"[We will] do something to cater for somebody dangling between life and death," he said.
"It is our obligation to care for citizens."

Traditional doctors accept produce and animals as payment for their services

Security at government hospitals has been tightened over the last five years, with high walls, fences and gates erected at institutions across the country.
Private and public security guards have been drafted in - usually on duty at the gates to ensure no patient escapes without paying their bill.
'Escaped'

I worked for six long months to pay off that bill. Cleaning, washing plates, gardening - any odd job that cropped up”

Former patient at a Catholic hospital

"We check patients before they leave the hospital premises if they have paid all the necessary dues. We check the various receipts and ensure that they are authentic," says Samuel Njie, a guard at Buea Regional Hospital.

"We've had cases of patients who have escaped from the hospital without our knowledge."
Some religious or mission hospitals and private clinics, which receive a small government subsidy, operate a similar policy in order to cover their costs.
But instead of expecting patients to pay, some ask them to work in lieu of their bill.
A tall man in Yaounde, who asked to remain anonymous, told me he was detained until July in a mission hospital in the north-west of Cameroon for six months.
He said he had contracted typhoid fever and gone to a Catholic hospital for treatment.
After the little money he had on him ran out, he was told he would have to work off the rest of his medical fees.

Patients are urged not to make corrupt payments

"I worked for six long months to pay off that bill," he said.
"Cleaning, washing plates, gardening - any odd job that cropped up.
"There was nothing I could do about it."
With the average Cameroonian surviving on less than $1 a day, some people prefer visiting traditional doctors when they get sick.
When a patient cannot pay for their treatment in cash, traditional practitioners allow them to pay in kind.
One traditional doctor in Buea told me the most popular items people use to pay their bills are fowls, goats and other things easily available in rural areas.
It is an option Germaine's mother, Mrs Abeboulouguiye, wished she could have used to settle her daughter and granddaughter's bill.
"For the first time in my life I could not help my daughter. They kept asking me to bring money to pay - even when I said I had no money."

Doctor: Puerto Rico boxer Camacho is brain dead

• This Sept. 13, 1997 file photo shows Hector Camacho, left, of Puerto Rico, and Oscar De La Hoya of Los Angeles exchanging blows in the first round …
• 
  In this Sept. 13, 1997, photo provided by Las Vegas News Bureau, Hector Camacho, left, fights Oscar De La Hoya in a boxing match at Thomas and Mack Center …

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Famed Puerto Rican boxer Hector ''Macho'' Camacho is clinically brain dead, doctors said Thursday, but family members disagreed on whether to take him off life support and two of the fighter's aunts said later that relatives had agreed to wait two more days.

Dr. Ernesto Torres said doctors had no more medical tests to perform on Camacho, who was shot in the face Tuesday night.
''We have done everything we could,'' said Torres, who is director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan. ''We have to tell the people of Puerto Rico and the entire world that Macho Camacho has died, he is brain dead.''
He said at a news conference Thursday morning that Camacho's father indicated he wanted the boxer taken off life support and his organs donated, but other relatives opposed the idea.
''This is a very difficult moment,'' Torres said.
One of the fighter's aunts, Aida Camacho, said Thursday evening that two of Camacho's sisters had asked to have two more days to spend with him, and other family members had agreed even though they felt it was time to give in.
''I'm a person of a lot of faith, and I believe in miracles, but science has spoken,'' she said.
Another aunt, Blanca Camacho, also said the family had agreed to the wishes of the two sisters from New York to hold off on ending life support. But, she added, ''There's nothing left here. He's already dead.''
Most of Camacho's relatives left the hospital by Thursday night without commenting.
About a dozen people stood vigil outside. One, Orvil Miller, a singer and actor, expressed sadness about Camacho's fate and recalled his admiration for the fighter's flamboyance.
''He had the combination of the skills of a boxer along with a great sense for entertainment,'' Miller said.
Steve Tannenbaum, a friend and a former boxing agent for Camacho, said in a phone interview that he idolized Camacho as a boxer.
''He is one of the greatest small fighters that I have ever seen,'' he said. ''Hector Camacho had a legendary status.''
Tannenbaum said he initially believed Camacho would survive. ''He was almost like the indestructible man. He had so many troubles with the law, so many altercations in his life. It's a great shame.''
The 50-year-old Camacho was shot as he and a friend sat in a Ford Mustang parked outside a bar Tuesday night. Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend's pocket, and a 10th bag open inside the car. Camacho's friend, identified as 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, was killed in the attack.
Doctors had initially said Camacho was expected to survive, but his condition worsened and his heart stopped briefly overnight Tuesday, Torres said. The bullet entered his jaw and lodged in his shoulder after tearing through three of four main arteries in his neck, affecting blood flow through his brain, doctors said.
''That lack of oxygen greatly damaged Macho Camacho's brain,'' Torres said.
Camacho was born in Bayamon, a city within the San Juan metropolitan area, but he grew up mostly in New York's Harlem neighborhood, earning the nickname ''the Harlem Heckler.''
He won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s and fought high-profile bouts against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. Camacho knocked out Leonard in 1997, ending the former champ's final comeback attempt. Camacho had a career record of 79-6-3.
In recent years, he divided his time between Puerto Rico and Florida, appearing regularly on Spanish-language television as well as on a reality show called ''Es Macho Time!'' on YouTube. In San Juan, he had been living in the beach community of Isla Verde, where he would readily pose for photos with tourists who recognized him on the street, said former pro boxer Victor ''Luvi'' Callejas, a neighbor and friend.
Camacho battled drugs, alcohol and other problems throughout his life. He was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison for the burglary of a computer store in Mississippi. While arresting him on the burglary charge in January 2005, police also found the drug ecstasy.
A judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation. He wound up serving two weeks in jail, though, after violating that probation.
His wife also filed domestic abuse complaints against him twice before their divorce several years ago.

One of the discussion areas between the two major party U.S. presidential candidates has been North Africa and the Middle East.

One of the discussion areas between the two major party U.S. presidential candidates has been North Africa and the Middle East.

While President Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s White House candidate, and his Republican Party challenger Mitt Romney may have strong differences on a number of domestic policy issues, their views on the Middle East don’t have many sharp contrasts.

Arab Spring

Both presidential candidates voice support for the Arab Spring, the popular uprising in Arab nations that has toppled autocratic governments in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.

President Obama demonstrated his support in his U.N. address on September 25. “The world has been captivated by the transformation that’s taken place. And the United - the United States has supported the forces of change,” he said.

Former Governor Romney, in a speech on October 8, pledged his effort to continue U.S. support for democracy advocates in Arab nations should he be elected.

“I will begin organizing all of our diplomatic and assistance efforts in the greater Middle East under one official, with the authority and accountability necessary to train all of our soft power resources on ensuring that the Arab Spring does not fade into a long winter,” he said.

Libya

An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the U.S. consulate compound in Benghazi late on September 11, 2012.

​​On September 11, 2012, an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others.

Mitt Romney harshly criticized the president in their second debate for what he says is a lack of candor about the origins of the Benghazi attack.

"There were many days that passed before we knew whether this was a spontaneous demonstration, or, actually, whether it was a terrorist attack," he said.

President Obama gave a strong response to Romney regarding Benghazi.

“The day after the attack, Governor, I stood in the Rose Garden and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror," he said.

Syria

A rebel fighter retreats for cover as enemy fire targets the rebel position during clashes at the Moaskar front line, one of the battlefields in the Karmal Jabl neighborhood, of Aleppo, Syria, October 24, 2012.

​​Both candidates say they support those trying to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and agree that the U.S. military should not get directly involved.

But President Obama says his support for the opposition does not extend to providing weapons.

"We have to do so making absolutely certain that we know who we are helping, that we’re not putting arms in the hands of folks who eventually could turn them against us or our allies in the region,” he said.

Former Governor Romney took a very different stance on weapons in the final debate.

“I want to make sure they get armed, and they have the arms necessary to defend themselves, but also, to remove Assad. But I do not want to see a military involvement on the part of our troops,” he said.

Iran, Israel, Palestinians

Both President Obama and former Governor Romney are emphatic in their support for Israel, especially in the face of Iranian threats against the Jewish State, as they both stated during the final debate.

“Israel is a true friend. It is our greatest ally in the region. And, if Israel is attacked, America will stand with Israel. I’ve made that clear throughout my presidency,” said the president.

"If I’m President of the United States - when I’m President of the United States - we will stand with Israel. And, if Israel is attacked, we have their back, not just diplomatically, not just culturally, but militarily," said the Republican challenger.

What hasn’t been discussed much by either candidate is U.S. efforts for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Iraq

One Middle East Analyst, Khaled Elgindy at Brookings Institution, says the ethnic and sectarian conflict seen in Iraq after the 2003 war should caution both presidential candidates that Washington ultimately cannot control the Arab Spring.

"The United States - cannot determine outcomes. Of elections, of uprisings, of a political process. We cannot pick ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ on the ground and expect to come out victorious," said Elgindy.

Elgindy says that in these countries, their disparate elements need to find ways of reconciling their political and other differences in order to develop inclusive, representative governments.

Michelle Obama: Her four-year evolution

In 2008, some controversial remarks threatened to derail her husband's election campaign. Yet four years later, Michelle Obama is widely regarded as a political star.

When Michelle Obama takes the stage on Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention, she does so as a popular public figure with bipartisan appeal.
But four years ago, on the campaign trail in 2008, Mrs Obama was labelled by her critics as angry, bitter and militant.
Statements from her thesis at Princeton, in which she examined the effect of being black at a predominantly white college, saw her portrayed as obsessed with race.
Campaigning for her husband in Wisconsin, she told supporters that she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult life". It was a comment that dogged her throughout the summer.
"She was depicted as being unpatriotic and un-American," says Mia Moody-Ramirez, a professor of journalism, PR and new media at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
But then, at the Democratic convention in Denver, she gave a speech introducing a new version of Michelle Obama - one that would help portray her as a loving wife, mother and daughter, and would help reshape her image into the one that is much-loved today.
Michelle Obama's prominent - and some say distracting - role on the campaign trail in 2008 came despite her initial displeasure at her husband's political ambition.

Michelle Obama's 2008 speech

As I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they - and your sons and daughters - will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country - where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House - we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.
Source: Huffington Post

"There is a pattern - at different points in their lives, she is very sceptical and hesitant about entering into political races, and once she does [back her husband], she's his strongest advocate," say Jodi Kantor, a reporter for the New York Times and author of The Obamas.

And in the campaign of 2008, Michelle Obama was bringing the full force of her personality and her training to bear.
"People who have known her for a long time say she is a naturally frank, forceful person. She's a Harvard-trained lawyer. Her tendency was to go in and argue her husband's case," says Kantor.
But the effect on the public was less than positive, in part because political wives normally take on a less prominent role, and in part because Michelle Obama was forging new ground.
"There was this perception that she was a problem for the campaign," says Bonnie Dow, an associate professor of communication at Vanderbilt University.
"The outlines of that problem are so easily tied to negative stereotypes about African-American women - that they are matriarchal, pushy loud."
When it became clear that Mrs Obama's campaign style was a detriment to her husband, she and the campaign team sought to modify her image, from dogged lawyer to loving mother and wife.
"Obama advisers put a lot of effort into tailoring her image. They brought through maternal warmth and left behind her bluntness," says Kantor.
"I don't think the Michelle Obama we see on the campaign trail is fake, she's a highly edited version."
That tailoring began over the summer of 2008, and in some ways made its public debut at the convention in Denver. Introduced by her brother, Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama gave a speech about her husband that her supporters thought was warm, funny and loving .
"When we go into the DNC... and she gives this speech, introducing the president by saying 'I stand here as a wife, mother, daughter, sister', you see the beginnings of a very purposeful rehabilitation of this image," says Dow.
The convention speech helped accelerate Mrs Obama's popularity, and by the time of her husband's inauguration in January of 2009 she was on her way to becoming a media darling.

Michelle Obama's 2008 evolution

• February 2007: Barack Obama declares his candidacy
• 18 February 2008: Says that she is "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life
• February 2008: Princeton thesis published online
• July 2008: New Yorker cover features machine gun-toting Michelle Obama fist-bumping her husband, dressed in Muslim attire
• August 2008: Speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Denver
• October 2008: Appears on a late night talk show in a J Crew sweater set, which quickly sells out
• November 2008: Barack Obama wins election

"On inauguration day she stepped out in eye-catching dresses, and her children looked so adorable in their little winter coats and tights," says Katherine Jellison, who has studied first ladies as a professor of history at Ohio University.

"She came across on that occasion as the kind of first lady that I think America is largely most comfortable with - the devoted wife and mother."
While Barack Obama's approval ratings began dropping within his first months in office, Michelle Obama's have continued to rise. When Gallup last measured the two Obamas head-to-head, in May 2012, Mrs Obama had a 66% approval rating, while her husband had 52% approval.
Once she became the first lady, she adopted projects with a maternal focus, a role embraced by the women who came before her.
"Every issue that she takes up is linked to children and to family - she doesn't even do that many issues that are specifically linked to women who aren't mothering," says Dow.
While former librarian Laura Bush promoted literacy, Mrs Obama worked on projects for military families and Let's Move, an initiative to fight childhood obesity. In that role, she has planted a vegetable garden in the White House, appeared on reality TV to promote weight loss and written a book about her gardening success.
"Once she got into office, she realised that this was about [Barack Obama] and it had to just be about him, or there was going to be a problem. She focused on issues that did not put her in the forefront and did not overshadow him," says Allison Samuels, a senior writer at Newsweek and author of What Would Michelle Obama Do?

The Obamas have reprised their 2008 campaign double act this time around

This election cycle, Democrats hope Michelle Obama can be a powerful weapon in the re-election arsenal, not a liability to be managed.
Some Republicans number among her fans but over the years her detractors have found fault with her clothes, her projects and her views.
Her speech on Tuesday in 2012 will seek to convince the few and crucial undecided voters that her husband's plan is the best for the country. And in an era when many families are worried about paying the bills, Samuels says Michelle Obama's message may resonate more than her Republican counterpart, Ann Romney.
"Ann Romney was talking in theory, whereas Michelle had to go back to work quickly after every child because they didn't have the money," she says. "When she talks about the issues of women and poor women, it's more authentic."
To counter that argument, her critics would point to reports that she spent $6,800 on a jacket when Americans are finding it hard to make ends meet. And Ann Romney, who has fought breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, appealed directly to women when she gave a speech that ignited the Republican party's gala last week.
Just because Michelle Obama is no longer a political lightning rod, it doesn't mean she has lost her political pull.
"Even though she is able to look like she is above the fray, of course she is political. She's out there campaigning, she's out there fundraising, she's one of the most popular political figures in the country," says Kantor.
This week, she will try to use the power of her popularity to bolster her husband's hopes of winning a second term in office.
"Remember the contradiction of first lady-hood is that the less overly political a first lady seems, the more politically effective she is," says Kantor.

World's Shortest Man and Woman Meet

For the first time in history, the shortest man and woman in the world have met. The shortest man, Chandra Bahadur Dangi, 72, is from a remote area of Nepal and stands 21.5 inches tall. Eighteen-year-old Jyoti Amge hails from Nagpur, India and measures just under 25 inches tall.
It was a match made in heaven for Guinness World Records, which arranged the introduction for a photo shoot to promote the upcoming release of Guinness World Records 2013 on September 13. To provide scale, a record book (12 inches in length) was placed between Chandra and Jyoti for one of the photos.
“It was an extraordinary moment,” says Marco Frigatti, the official Guinness World Records Adjudicator, who also took part in the photo shoot. “They’re both such incredible individuals. Everyone knew this was a special moment, and the atmosphere was magical.”

A Record-Breaking Birthday

Jyoti secured the World’s Shortest Woman title simply by reaching womanhood on her 18^th birthday in December of last year. She has a condition called achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that affects bone growth and cartilage formation. Achondroplasia is the most common cause of dwarfism.
Jyoti won't grow any taller than her current height. Due to her size, she has her clothes specially made. She sleeps in a tiny bed and uses special plates and cutlery to eat. Jyoti is currently pursuing her dream of becoming a successful actress. She has already starred in a number of Indian films.
“Since being recognized by Guinness World Records, I have been able to visit lots of different countries,” says Jyoti. “I love travelling. I have visited Japan and parts of Europe, and now I can’t wait to visit the UK.”

A Record-Breaking Discovery

In February this year, Chandra made headlines around the world when he was crowned the World’s Shortest Man. Until his recent discovery, he had spent his entire life in the remote Nepalese mountain village of Rhimkholi, about 250 miles west of Kathmandu. Because Chandra has never been examined by a doctor, the cause of his short stature is unknown.Doctors suspect he has a form of primordial dwarfism.
Chandra’s 21.5-inch height also snagged him the title of Shortest Man in History, breaking the previous record of India’s Gul Mohammed, who was 22.5 in tall.
“I’m very happy that I’m being recognized by Guinness World Records and that my name will be written in a book,” says Chandra. “It’s a big thing for my family, my village and my country. I am very happy.” 

Olympic---Historic Phelps claims record 19th medal

Historic Phelps claims record 19th medal

LONDON (AFP) – Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time on Tuesday, winning a record 19th medal in the pool as China’s swimming sensation Ye Shiwen grabbed her second gold of the Games.
Phelps anchored the US team to a resounding victory in the 4x200m freestyle relay to secure gold and beat the record of 18 medals amassed by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina between 1956 and 1964.
The American had earlier been thwarted in his bid for a 200m butterfly Olympic treble by Chad le Clos of South Africa, but a silver medal allowed him to match the record medal haul before the relay sealed his place in history.
Phelps, 27, won six golds and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Games, then collected a record eight golds in Beijing.
He had suffered a testing start to the London Games, slumping out of the medals in the 400m individual medley and then having to settle for silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
But Phelps’ unprecedented 19th medal was never in doubt in Tuesday’s relay as he took over the final leg with a clear lead built up by his team-mates and powered home to leave France trailing in silver and China with bronze.
“I thanked those guys for helping me get to this moment,” said Phelps. “I told those guys I wanted a big lead in the last leg and they gave it to me.
“I just wanted to hold on.”
Ye, just 16, may encounter more speculation about her remarkable performances after she added the 200m individual medley title to the 400m individual medley crown.
The Chinese girl was lagging behind the leaders at the turn in the Aquatics Centre, but produced a powerful final 50m to overhaul Alicia Coutts of Australia in an Olympic record time of 2min 7.57sec.
Her swim came just days after her lightning freestyle leg in the longer medley propelled her to a new world record.
Ye’s feats have raised unproven suspicions of doping, with John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches’ Association, describing her finish in the 400m medley as “impossible”.
But Ye said she had used the row to motivate herself.
“I don’t feel upset or sad about what the media have been saying about me,” she insisted. “I feel calm, but it just encouraged me to prove myself.”
Chinese authorities went on the offensive over the allegations. Jiang Zhixue, the head of anti-doping at China’s General Administration of Sport, told Xinhua news agency it was unfair to point the finger at their swimmers.
“I think it is not proper to single Chinese swimmers out once they produce good results. Some people are just biased,” he said.
Former British swimmer Adrian Moorhouse, a gold medallist in the 100m breaststroke in the 1988 Seoul Games, defended Ye, saying it was possible China had unearthed their own Phelps.
“I think it’s sour grapes,” Moorhouse said. “I think it’s quite insulting actually.”
In the gymnastics arena, the United States won the women’s team final to claim their first gold medal in the event since 1996. Russia had to settle for silver while Romania pipped 2008 Olympic champions China to bronze.
Defending champions Germany won the equestrian three-day eventing, with Michael Jung then becoming the first rider to hold the European, world and Olympic individual titles.
Great Britain finished second in the team event to earn a silver medal for Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Zara Phillips, but the host nation is still without a single gold medal after four days of competition.
The US basketball Dream Team thrashed Tunisia 110-63 as Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love each scored 16 points, leaving the Americans heading for a date with Nigeria and eyeing the next round.
China lead the United States by 13 golds to nine in the medals table, and the Chinese won their third diving title in three events when world champions Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao clinched the women’s 10m synchro platform.
Chen, the individual 10m platform champion from the Beijing Games and the synchronised 10m platform champion, teamed with Wang to tally 368.40 points from their five dives off the tower.

Budget: Reps insist on impeaching Jonathan

Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal and President Goodluck Jonathan
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INTERVENTIONS by the Peoples Democratic Party notwithstanding, the House of Representatives on Sunday insisted that President Goodluck Jonathan must achieve 100 per cent budget implementation by September or face impeachment.

Apparently reacting to interventions by the PDP and reported overtures by the President to save his job, the House said it would not change its resolution midway.

“A resolution of the House is a resolution of the House; nobody can change it midway,” spokesman for the lawmakers, Zakari Muhammed, told The PUNCH in Abuja.

Muhammed said the only alternative was for Jonathan to achieve a 100 per cent budget implementation by September in accordance with the resolution of the House.

The lawmakers on Thursday frowned on the poor implementation of the 2012 budget and set a September 18 deadline for the Jonathan administration.

“The budget implementation is about 35 percent,” the Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Mr. John Enoh, had told his colleagues. Enoh said the committee found that only a meagre N200bn had been released to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government in the first two quarters of the year.

The House also directed the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to immediately release all first and second quarter capital votes to the MDAs.

The resolution, which was endorsed by all members, faulted the minister’s decision to withhold the funds of some MDAs on the grounds that they were unable to utilise their first quarter votes.

The House noted that withholding funds under any excuse was a “breach of the Appropriation Act (2012).”

The action of the House gave rise to reported moves by the Presidency and the leadership of the PDP at the weekend to make the lawmakers reverse their threat.

Jonathan and the National Chairman of the PDP, Bamangar Tukur, had reportedly reached out to the Speaker of the House, Aminu Tambuwal, with a view to influencing the lawmakers to soft-pedal on their threat.

But Muhammed said while the moves were legitimate, nobody could change a stand already taken by the legislators on the floor of the House.

“Our practice is that our resolution, once taken, it stands; it can only be reviewed on the floor of the House, not by an individual. A resolution of the House is a resolution of the House; nobody can change it midway. Not even the Speaker has the powers to change a House resolution,” the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, said.

He added, “What the Executive should do is to implement the budget in line with the House resolution.

“Let us hold on to the promise of the House Leader (Mrs. Mulikat Akande-Adeola) that things will improve in the next two months.”

Akande-Adeola, had on Thursday urged her colleagues to wait till the expiration of the September deadline, assuring them that she was confident that things would have improved by then.

According to Muhammed, if funds are released to the MDAs and there is evidence that projects are being executed, members will say so on resumption from break on September 18.

“We have employers; they are the people of our constituencies. If they feel the impact of the budget, they will tell us and members will react accordingly”, he stated.

Meanwhile, the PDP, the party to which Jonathan and majority of members of the House belong to, has said it will not allow the President to be impeached.

The party said it would do everything within its powers to make sure that the frosty relationship between the House and the President did not degenerate into the level of impeachment.

To avoid this, the party said it had started consultations on how to make sure that the House work harmoniously with Jonathan.

Secretary of the PDP Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jubril, told one of our correspondents on Sunday that the party’s leadership had already commenced the process of ending the disagreement between the members of the lower legislative chamber and the Executive.

Though Jubril declined to give the specifics on the party’s intervention, he however said that the party would not fold its arms and allow the House impeach the President.

The party’s constitution in Article 12.80(f) bestows on the BOT the power to mediate in a conflict between the legislature and the Executive.

Jubril said, “The party is doing everything within its powers to resolve the misunderstanding between the two arms of government.

“Majority of the House members are PDP members and the President is also a member of our party. Therefore, we won’t allow the disagreement between them to lead to the point of impeaching the President

breaking news--Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes appears dazed in court

Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes appears dazed in court

Holmes in court, July 23, 2012. (AP/Pool)

UPDATE: 11:30 a.m. ET: James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater massacre, appeared in a Colorado courtroom on Monday. A judge advised Holmes of his Miranda rights, and that there was probable cause to continue to hold him without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Holmes, who was transported from from a holding cell to the courtroom via an underground tunnel, appeared dazed: his brow furrowed, his eyes opening and closing often. His hair was dyed red. His hands and feet were shackled. He did not speak.
Seated in a jury box next public defender Tamara Brady, Holmes never looked towards a gallery that included about two dozen victims and victims advocates.
The preliminary hearing lasted for about 11 minutes. Holmes' next court appearance is July 30.
A decision on whether to seek the death penalty could be weeks or months away, District Attorney Carol Chambers told reporters as she entered the courthouse.
"It will be a conversation we have with the victims before we make that decision," Chambers said.
He could also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations stemming from the mass shooting that killed 12 and injured 58 people at an Aurora, Colo., screening of "Dark Knight Rises." The rampage is among the worst mass shootings in modern-day American history.
[COMPLETE COVERAGE: Colorado theater shooting]
Holmes, clad in full body armor, surrendered to officers in a parking lot behind the cinema. He did not resist arrest, but investigators have since described the former medical student as uncooperative.
Authorities and news reports have portrayed the native Californian as smart and shy, but no motive for the shooting spree has surfaced.
Federal investigators were dispatched to assist local authorities with the investigation, but officials have indicated justice will be sought in a state courtroom.

Colorado has a death penalty, but only one inmate has been executed since 1977. Three inmates are currently on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

"If James Holmes isn't executed," former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman told Reuters, "Colorado may as well throw away its death penalty law."

Palestinians seek int’l probe as Al-Jazeera proves Arafat was poisoned

RAMALLAH, Palestinian  (AFP) – The Palestinians want an international probe into the death of former president Yasser Arafat after an investigation showed he may have been poisoned, an official told AFP Wednesday.
“We call for the formation of an international investigation committee modelled on the international investigation committee set up to look into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri,” senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said.
The call came a day after the Al-Jazeera news channel broadcast the results of an investigation into the death of Arafat, who died in 2004, which showed that the Palestinian leader might have been poisoned with polonium.
The news channel said an analysis of Arafat’s belongings, which were given to his wife by the Paris hospital where he died, showed high levels of the radioactive substance.
Polonium was used to kill Russian former spy turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with the substance at a London hotel.
Francois Bochud, head of the Institute of Radiation Physics at the University of Lausanne, was among the scientists who worked with Al-Jazeera to analyse Arafat’s death and test his possessions.
“The conclusion was that we did find some significant polonium that was present in these samples,” he told Al-Jazeera.
Arafat, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who led the struggle for Palestinian statehood for nearly four decades, died on November 11, 2004, following several weeks of treatment.
He had been airlifted to France from his besieged headquarters in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
French officials, citing privacy laws, refused to reveal the precise cause of death or the nature of his condition, fuelling a host of rumours and theories as to the cause of his illness.
At the time of his death at the age of 75, Palestinian officials charged he had been poisoned by long-time foe Israel, but an inconclusive Palestinian investigation in 2005 ruled out cancer, AIDS or poisoning.
To confirm the theory that he was poisoned by polonium it would be necessary to exhume and analyse Arafat’s remains, Bochud said.
“If (Suha Arafat) really wants to know what happened to her husband (we need) to find a sample — I mean, an exhumation… should provide us with a sample that should have a very high quantity of polonium if he was poisoned,” he said.

FG signs $4.5bn refinery deal with US energy firm

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigeria on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an American energy firm to build six oil refineries, in a project worth 4.5 billion dollars, a government statement said.
Nigeria’s  refining infrastructure has largely crumbled, turning the country into a net importer, which often pays high prices for its own crude that has been processed abroad.
The deal between US-based Vulcan Energy, the Nigerian government and a local firm, aims to build six refineries with a combined capacity of 180,000 barrels per day, Nigeria’s Trade and Investment Ministry said in a statement, which also listed the 697.5 billion naira ($4.5 billion) price tag.
Two of the refineries are to be completed within a year, according to the terms of the MoU.
“This is the beginning of changing our old paradigm from exporting just raw materials and exporting jobs to the Western countries,” Trade and Investment Minister Olusegun Aganga said in the statement.
Nigeria produces around 2 million barrels a day of crude, making it the world’s eighth largest producer, but its petroleum industry has for years been riddled with corruption and poor management.
Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan fired the chief executive of the state oil firm NNPC, a move his office said was designed to boost transparency and accountability.
Vulcan’s vice president, Jim Mansfield, said the MoU highlighted Nigeria’s attractiveness as an investment destination.
“The funding for the project will be a non-Nigeria source and is from investors who firmly believe that Nigeria is a good place to do business,” he was quoted in the statement as saying.
Houston-based Vulcan currently operates in several US states as well as Canada.

Julian Assange sent extradition notice by Met Police

Julian Assange's Wikileaks published leaked diplomatic cables

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been served with an extradition notice by the Metropolitan Police.

Officers from the extradition unit delivered a note to Mr Assange at Ecuador's London embassy.
Mr Assange took refuge there last week and is seeking diplomatic asylum to prevent being sent to Sweden where he is accused of rape and assault.
Scotland Yard said the notice required a 40-year-old man to attend a police station "at a time of our choosing".
'Standard procedure' The Wikileaks website published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several governments and international businesses.
Mr Assange fears that if he is sent to Sweden he could be sent on to the United States to face charges over Wikileaks and that he could face the death penalty.
In a brief statement to the BBC, Scotland Yard said: "This is standard procedure in extradition cases and is the first step in the removal process.
"He remains in breach of his bail conditions and failure to surrender would be a further breach of those conditions and he is liable to arrest."
Under international diplomatic arrangements, the Metropolitan Police cannot go into the embassy to arrest Mr Assange.
Mr Assange, whose bail conditions include staying at a named address between 22:00 and 08:00 BST, arrived at the embassy in Knightsbridge on Tuesday last week
Ecuador is considering Mr Assange's application for asylum.

Breaking News-- US declares Abubakar Shekau, 2 others terrorists

US declares Abubakar Shekau, 2 others terrorists

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States designated three leaders of the Boko Haram militant group as terrorists Thursday in a bid to stem the violence in Nigeria, which has endured a series of deadly attacks.
The three named by the State Department were Abubakar Shekau, widely believed to lead Boko Haram’s main Islamist cell, Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi.
But the US stopped short of putting the group as a whole on its terror list.
“In the last 18 months, Boko Haram or associated militants have killed more than 1,000 people,” the State Department said in a statement, adding that Shekau was the most visible of the group’s leaders.
The two other men were accused of close links to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.
“Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in northern Nigeria, its primary area of operation,” the statement said, adding that most of the victims were “overwhelmingly civilian.”
The US designation blocks the men’s “property interests subject to US jurisdiction and prohibits US persons from engaging in transactions with or for the benefit of these individuals,” the statement added.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sin” in the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria, is believed to have a number of factions with differing aims, including some with political links and a hardcore Islamist cell.
Initially, the group said it was fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in the north of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer.
But a range of demands by different people have since been issued, including the release of its members from prison.
Boko Haram launched an uprising in 2009, leading to nearly a week of fighting that ended with a military assault that left some 800 people dead.
The group went dormant for more than a year before reemerging in 2010 with a series of assassinations. Bomb blasts, including suicide attacks, have since become frequent and increasingly deadly.
Just this week, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for suicide attacks on churches in Kaduna state on Sunday that left at least 16 people dead. They also sparked reprisals by Christian mobs against mosques and Muslims that killed dozens.
Frustration over the government’s inability to stop attacks by the group has triggered warnings that more residents could take the law into their own hands.
Shekau was once thought to have been killed, but re-emerged in January to lead the group from the shadows.
He appeared on YouTube at the time, threatening more attacks and saying Boko Haram was responsible for the January 20 violence that killed 185 people in Kano.
He was seen as the second-in-command of Boko Haram during a 2009 uprising. The leader at the time, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured by soldiers and handed over to police. Yusuf was later killed when police claimed he was trying to escape, though rights groups have called it a summary execution.
Born in a farming village also called Shekau in northeastern Yobe state, Shekau studied theology under local clerics in the Mafoni area of Maiduguri and enrolled in a government-run school for Islamic studies.
He is often shown in photos wearing a keffiyeh and seated next to an AK-47 assault rifle, appearing tense.

Farouk Lawan: Battling to save a threatened integrity

June ,2012

JOHN AMEH writes on the emergence of Mr. Farouk Lawan as a power broker in the House  of  Representatives and his current battle with a $3m bribery allegation

Yet, his concern captured the feeling of the majority of lawmakers over what has become the $3m bribery scandal reverberating in the House of Representatives.

One of the few to have survived from the 1999 set of legislators, Lawan until the latest bribery scam, was perceived by many to be above board.

Such was the confidence reposed in Lawan that when the House under the current leadership of Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, decided to tread the dangerous path of probing the fuel subsidy regime in the country, it entrusted Lawan with the headship of the Ad-Hoc Committee on the Management of Subsidy Regime last January.

 ‘Mr. Integrity’, as he was fondly called by some of his colleagues, did a good job of the investigation with the other seven panel members.

After sitting for over three months, the panel turned in a revealing report, exposing how the nation was defrauded to the tune of over N1.070trn in subsidy payments by an oil cartel comprising government agencies, marketers and portfolio contractors.

The subsidy probe appeared to be the icing on the cake for the instant hero, as lawmakers basked in the euphoria to consider and adopt the recommendations of the report.

However, just like the panel members were taken aback, lawmakers, perhaps, did not know that the celebrated legislator negotiated a $3m bribe with oil businessman, Mr. Femi Otedola.

 From his own admission to the police, he indeed collected $500,000 from Otedola, while the committee clerk, Mr. Boniface Emenalo, collected another $120,000. The two sums ($620,000) were a part payment of the total bribe package of $3m.

 While Lawan claimed it was to expose Otedola, who wanted his indicted firm, Zenon Oil and Gas Limited, off the hook, the business mogul told the world that he set up the politician for extorting money from him.

 The State Security Service, who coordinated the operation for Otedola, has video evidence in circulation, revealing what allegedly transpired between the two.

For the first time in a long while, the entire House came down so decisively against its own, axing Lawan. He was stripped of the chairmanship of the ad-hoc committee and suspended as chairman of the Committee on Education, as evidence that he took the bribe became believable.

Washing off its hands, the House also asked anti-graft agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegation and punish any offender found culpable. In-house, Lawan will also be called to question by the Committee on Ethics and Privileges.

Lawan has come a long way. The diminutive Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker from Shanono/Bagwai Federal Constituency in Kano State, drove into the National Assembly premises in a Honda ’86 Honda Accord car in 1999.

The English Language graduate, who was born in 1962, was instrumental in exposing the certificate forgery scandal of the first speaker of the 1999 set, Mr. Salisu Buhari. The campaign against Buhari, successfully saw him being forced out of office, paving the way for Umar Ghali Na’Abba to mount the speaker’s saddle.

In 2002 when the House moved against former President Olusegun Obasanjo for alleged “abuse of power,” Lawan was one of the most vocal faces of the legislature. He gave Obasanjo sleepless nights until the impeachment threat was eventually dropped.

Lawan has been chairman of several standing committees and various ad-hoc panels, including the influential Committee on Appropriation and Committee on Information/Media. Since 2007, he was chairman of the Committee on Education until last week.

In 2007, Lawan again championed the anti-corruption crusade against a former Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, who granted anticipatory approval for N628m renovation/vehicle purchase contracts.

He formed a group, The Integrity Group, to champion the campaign to remove Etteh from office. Indeed, he won the sobriquet, Mr. Integrity, after the campaign that resulted in Etteh throwing in the towel on October 31, 2007.

Lawan, who by now had become a kingmaker of sort, almost single-handedly installed Etteh successor, Mr. Oladimeji Bankole as speaker. It was not surprising that during the Bankole years, the kingmaker was held in awe and his word was law.

The former lecturer and later, registrar of the Kano State Polytechnic, had his way on almost every issue in the House, both on the floor and off the floor. Bankole consulted him and took his advice regularly. His capacity to mobilise members was awesome and ignoring him would be at the peril of the leadership.

Yet, under Bankole’s leadership, Mr. Integrity’s track record began to receive a dent and there were posers as to whether he had been a double-faced legislator all these years.

Not long after he mounted the saddle, the Bankole leadership was enmeshed in a N2.4bn car purchase scam in 2008. Nigerians and members had looked up to the Integrity Group to move against Bankole, but strangely, Lawan lost his voice. There was no more steam. Rather, the group reportedly worked behind the scenes to clear the leadership of complicity in the scandal. The House later exonerated Bankole.

Still under Bankole, in June 2010, the House suspended 11 legislators led by Mr. Dino Melaye. Their offence? They were calling the leadership to account over the alleged mismanagement of N9bn of the House capital budget. The matter was swept under the carpet and there was no word from Mr. Integrity.

In 2011, the House unilaterally approved an increase in the quarterly allowances for members from N27.9m to N42m. The leadership was forced to procure a loan of about N40bn in order to sustain the “illegal” allowances.

Bankole and his deputy, Mr. Usman Nafada, later faced charges in court over the expenditure before the case was quashed. However, nothing was heard from Lawan at the time and he benefited from the illegal pay cheque.

Lawan is loved to be hated by many colleagues for being a schemer, opportunist, yet influential lone-ranger who is said to live in the self-belief that he has answers to everything.

In spite of his influence, most members of the committees he had chaired did not flow with him, but tagged along because of the lawmaker’s perceived high esteem among members and outside the House.

The schemer in Lawan showed in the run up to the election of the leadership of the seventh House, where Tambuwal emerged as the speaker on June 6, 2011.

Insiders said that Lawan and the PDP structure had an initial plan to scuttle Tambuwal’s emergence because the party had zoned the seat to the South-West.

He was to be the arrow head of the opposition to Tambuwal. He was to either contest the seat so as to split the votes of the majority from the North or to use his influence to mobilise support for the party’s candidate from the South-West.

Either way, the plan was to stop Tambuwal from being elected as the speaker.

However, when Lawan discovered that the pendulum in the House swung in favour of Tambuwal, he quickly retreated and abandoned the plan.

The smart Lawan wormed his way to the Tambuwal camp by encouraging members to vote for him.

To prove that he was now repentant, Lawan was the only member who openly displayed his voter’s card on June 1, showing that he voted for Tambuwal, before dropping it in the ballot box.

As in previous regimes, he steadily became a key figure under Tambuwal, a reason, coupled with his acclaimed integrity records, that he was entrusted with the headship of the fuel subsidy probe panel.

But, it seems this time around, the bubble has burst. Members now know better.

As the saying goes, there is a time when one’s cup is full. Is this Lawan’s nemesis? Is this the fall of Lawan?

One ex-lawmaker, who is still licking her wounds for crossing Lawan’s path is Etteh.

Hear the embittered former speaker, ““Now, Nigerians know who is corrupt and who is not. It is a big shame, it has further ridiculed the image of the House. Basically, what we read in the newspapers does not come as a surprise having had relationship with him for a very long time. He is the leader of the cartel.

“I did not steal any money. What happened when they were calling for my removal was a mere anticipatory spending, no money was missing. Dimeji Bankole, whom Farouk installed, spent over N400m to renovate his official quarters, which I wanted to renovate with just N40m, and sold it to himself for N100m.

“I was removed not for stealing money but three groups sacked me for their selfish reasons. The first group was led by Farouk Lawan, who was annoyed that he was not given the Appropriation Committee.

“The second group was the fundamentalists, who would not like to bow down to the authority of a woman and the third group believed that since the Senate President is a Christian, therefore, the Speaker must be a Muslim. All these groups joined forces together to fight me.

  Curfew pains hit Kaduna, Yobe residents hard

Curfew pains hit Kaduna, Yobe residents hard

Gaidam

Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, was groaning yesterday under the weight of a huge humanitarian crisis sparked by Monday’s violence and the 24-hour curfew that followed.

Gone are the explosions and the killings. Now the city is struggling to return to normal life amid pangs of hunger and pains of losing relations.

As it is in Damaturu, so it is in Kaduna, the North’s political capital where two churches were attacked last Sunday.

Security operatives and suspected members of the Jama’atu Ahlul Sunna Lid Da’awati wal Jihad (aka Boko Haram) were locked in a bloody test of supremacy in Damaturu on Monday. 

Many residents were either trapped in their offices,  market places, hotels, relatives’ home or areas considered to be safe when the fighting erupted at about 5.30pm on Monday. 

Members of “Operation Restore Order 111”, otherwise known as JTF, are escorting trapped people to their homes and destinations because of the restriction of movement. 

The Damaturu JTF Commander, Col. Abdulsalam said: “We had earlier distributed our hotlines all across the state for the people to report any suspicious activities. The JTF numbers came in handy as a lot of people were trapped, either in their shops, offices or other  places of their endeavours. 

“Since the curfew was not meant to punish anybody, we had to do our best to alleviate the sufferings of all those trapped in various locations.”

Beneficiaries of the operation praised the JTF for their foresight. Many of them, who do not want their names in print recounted ugly details of the “unfortunate” night. 

Some of the workers especially paramedical and medical staff, were trapped at their working places as no one came to relieve them of their duties. 

It was also gathered that top government officials who normally work late, turned their offices into guest houses until Wednesday morning when the JTF came to their rescue. 

Civil servants and others, including bankers, have gone on a forced break due to the curfew. 

Businesses are grounded. Many families are stuck at home without food. 

Police Commissioner Patrick Egbuniwe confirmed that five policemen, 34 sect members and two soldiers were killed in the Monday attack. 

He said: “What I can tell you now is that the number of dead policemen has increased to five, 34 sect members were killed and two army personnel also died. But we are yet to know the number of civilians who died in the attack.” 

Four primary schools and a market at Kandahar were burnt. The primary schools are Bindigary Primary School, Pompomari Primary School, Njiwaji Primary School and Bukar Ammi Primary School  - all in Damaturu metropolis. 

There were unconfirmed report that the COCCIN Church in Shagari Low-cost and the home of the pastor of Unity Chapel and his church were also torched. 

But the CP said those churches claimed to have been burnt were not from fresh attacks but  attacks that took place in the past. 

“I have gone round all those bad areas, including the churches. From the DPO’s briefing, the said churches were not affected by the fresh attacks that took place on Monday. They are actually old attacks,” Egbuniwe said.

Commenting on when the 24hour curfew will be lifted, the CP said: “It is the governor that will decide whether the curfew will be relaxed or not. It is not the decision of the CP. I am not the one who imposed the curfew but all of us will have to come together and sit at the table - the SSS, Police, JTF and the governor before a decision will be taken”. 

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam yesterday urged members of the public to disregard some text messages circulating in  town that Yobe is boiling and that churches are being burnt. 

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Press and Information Affairs, Abdullahi Bego, the governor said: 

“Our attention has been drawn to a text message being circulated by some mischievous elements wanting to cause disaffection between followers of different religions in our state that members of the Christian Community were being ‘attacked’, that Churches were set ablaze in Damaturu and that Yobe was ‘boiling’ following the incident between security agents and members of the Boko Haram in the State capital on Monday. 

“We wish to state categorically that the entire content of the text being circulated is false, misleading, mischievous and unfounded. 

“There were no churches in Damaturu that were attacked. The unfortunate incident in the town last Monday affected all residents, regardless of religious inclination but, as everyone knows, members of the security forces were able to repel the attack and restore law and order. 

“People who circulate false text messages were apparently doing so to stir up religious tension but they will not succeed. 

“The Yobe State Government, therefore, calls on people to discountenance the said text message and any similar false messages and to continue to live peacefully with one another. 

“His Excellency Governor Ibrahim Gaidam also urges both Muslims and Christians to continue to pray the Almighty God to restore peace and security in Yobe State and the nation in general.” 

Yobe State University Vice  Chancellor Prof. Musa Alabe visited the school yesterday to donate food items and a ram to the students. 

“I looked at the situation and decided to go and see my students. As you know, some of them were caught up by the 24-hour curfew and they have nothing to eat, So, we have to at least intervene, to cushion the effect.  I called JTF to escort me to the school and they obliged. 

“We gave some food stuff and a ram to be cooked and shared to the students. Even though I know that it will not be enough, but we hope that the 24-hour curfew will not last forever,” Alabe said. 

Reports said the situation at the Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu is deplorable, with students buying up all the food stuff, such as biscuits, bread and beverages in the kiosks.

Egyptians Skeptical about Muslim Brotherhood’s Policies

Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi Claims Win, Egypt's Military Claims power

A scholar says many Egyptians are expressing concern about the impact of the Muslim Brotherhood’s policies on their “secular lives” after the Islamic group claimed victory in the presidential run-off vote.

Clottey interview with Said Sadek, professor of political sociology at the American University in Ca

Said Sadek, professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, said many Egyptians are not religious fanatics, and are worried about the social policies the Muslim Brotherhood will implement.

He said years of propaganda against the Muslim Brotherhood makes Egyptians suspicious about the Islamic group.

“They have also seen many examples of Islamic states that restrict personal liberties and undermine human rights. And so not everybody in Egypt is crazy about or loves the Muslim Brotherhood,” Sadek said.

The group’s candidate Mohammed Morsi declared victory in the country's first presidential election following last year’s up-rising against President Hosni Mubarak. The group said unofficial results show he won about 52 percent of the vote in the two day run-off election that ended Sunday. It said it based its claim of victory on results tallied by the party’s representatives at almost all of the country's the polling stations.

But establishment-backed rival Ahmed Shafiq disputes the claim. One of his aids, Mahmud Barakeh, expressed astonishment at the Brotherhood's announcement, accusing the Islamists of “hijacking” the election by refusing to wait for the official results scheduled for Thursday.

Sadek said there appears to be low enthusiasm for both Morsi and Shafiq.

“The two choices left in the eyes of Egyptians symbolize what people didn’t want in the Egyptian revolution… the people were scared, and they felt that they had very little choice. Women, Copts, businessmen, liberals, were not happy with choosing the Islamists and they voted for  Shafiq,” said Sadek.

“The whole electoral process reflected fear. It was not motivated by democracy or anything," he added. "People voted for Shafiq because they feared Morsi, and those who voted for Morsi did that because they feared Shafiq because [of his role] against the revolution. He may create the old system of [Hosni] Mubarak, with its corruption and violation of human rights.”

He said many Egyptians anxiously stayed up all night for the results of the second-round vote. Sadek said the country’s social networks reflected frustration, disappointment, shock, fear and many unhappy people.

“You don’t see people jumping in the street, because we have for the first time a freely elected president [who] does not promise respecting the universally declared human rights and personal liberties,” said Sadek.

He said the election of Morsi has dual implications for Egypt’s revolution, which ousted former President Mubarak.

“In one sense, it is a victory. We did not elect the same system, we got someone from outside the system. But at the same time Mr. Morsi is a product of a totalitarian ideology. He has been working for a party and an organization that has a special view about how things should be done and that may affect personal liberties and human rights,” he said.

The Cairo-based CBC Satellite Television Channel says in remarks following his declaration of victory, Morsi pledged to be a servant to all Egyptians.

 “We people are equal,” he said. “No one will oppress the other. The powerful will not oppress the weak. The rights of the weak will not be neglected. We are all looking .forward to maintaining stability, love, and brotherhood, and seeing a… civil, national, democratic, constitutional, and modern state.”

The website for the daily Al-Arabiya newspaper says Morsi has voiced support for women’s rights, freedom of expression – including peaceful protests - and for the rights of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority.  The paper says he has called for a democratic state with a separation of powers.

Iranian-American Rapper Shatters Stereotypes

June 19, 2012

LOS ANGELES, California - Azad Right is not a traditional rapper. At 24 years old, he has a political science degree and is Iranian-American.

“Being on stage is the best part about this," he says, "being able to see these kids and these people’s reactions to your music, the stuff you spent a year making and you see people [say] 'This is really really good, I can relate to this.' That’s what makes me tingle."

The performer's real name is Azad Naficy and he's the son of the famous Iranian poet and political exile, Majid Naficy. Right grew up watching people listen to his father's poetry readings around the world, something that had a big influence on him.

“Being able to see the reaction people gave him," he says, "that’s one of the reasons I always want to go on stage and express my feelings.”

But, as an Iranian-American, expressing himself through rap has its challenges.

"I've seen a lot of comments on the YouTube videos and on the blogposts like 'Yo, this kid, when I first saw him, his image on the site, I didn't expect him to rap.'"

In the U.S., hip-hop and rap are mostly dominated by African-Americans and Latinos. Right is trying to break that stereotype.

“I don’t think there should be any culture, any heritage, that doesn’t have a representative in that industry,” he says.

Two of the people helping Right overcome those cultural boundaries are former classmates who are now his producers.

“I don’t think the world has ever seen anything like us," says producer Jonathan Marquez, who is of Puerto Rican and Guatamalan descent.

Co-producer Omid Adami, also an Iranian-American, says the team's mixed ethnicities are already breaking barriers.

“This generation is much more accepting of people like us," Adami says. "I feel like once our music does reach the masses, it’ll be much more appreciated. We’ll definitely pave the way for a lot of people like us who didn’t really think it was possible.”

For Right, his name symbolizes what's possible. The name "Azad" means freedom in Farsi.

“It’s something my parents didn’t have,” he says.

Freeing the music industry of cultural bias is one of those things he believes is possible.

Thought also went into how he came up with the rapper name "Right."

“I always liked to write," he says. "I didn’t like the way w-r-i-t-e looked. One day we were just sitting and just switched it to r-i-g-h-t. 'Your music is positive; it looks better.'”

His dream is to succeed at what he loves - writing and performing his words on stage.

Popular Pakistani Singer Gunned Down

Ghazala Javed, who had a loyal following among Pashto speakers around the world, in Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province, Pakistan, undated (F. Zafar/VOA).

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RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal

June 19, 2012

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Popular Pashto-language singer Ghazala Javed has been shot dead along with her father in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Local authorities said Javed's husband, whom she'd left after discovering that he had another wife and resisting his demand that she end her musical career, was a suspect.

Police and medical sources told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that Javed, who was in her early 20s, was shot by men riding on a motorbike as she left a beauty salon on June 18.

The chief of Lady Reading Hospital, Azam Jan Afridi, said Javed had been shot six times. Her father, who was with her, was also killed, while a sister who was also at the scene survived.

Peshawar District police chief Haji Imtiaz told Radio Mashaal that the three assailants were believed to have included her former husband, Jahangir Khan.

"Ghazala Javed, her father, and her younger sister left a beauty parlor and were sitting in her car when the assailants Jahangir, Salam, and Bashir opened fire on them," Imtiaz said. "As a result, her sister survived, while Ghazala Javed was killed."

There was no word on whether the alleged assailants had been captured by police.

Javed sang in her native Pashto language and had released a number of albums that were popular among young people in Pakistan’s northwest.

She also had a loyal fan following among Pashto speakers around the world.

Javed reportedly married businessman Jahangir Khan in 2010 but divorced after finding out he had another wife and because he tried to ban her from singing.

Javed originally came from the northwestern Swat Valley.

From 2007 to 2009, the Taliban seized control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, terrorizing the local populace with murders and attacks on girls' schools and music shops.

Javed fled to Peshawar in 2009 as the military launched a major offensive to retake control of the area.

Charles Taylor to Appeal Sentence

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor listens to the judge at the opening of the sentencing judgement hearing at the court in Leidschendam, near The Hague, May 30,2012

June 19, 2012

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor plans to appeal his conviction for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone released a short statement Tuesday saying Taylor's defense lawyers have filed notice of intention to appeal.

The court sentenced Taylor to 50 years in prison last month for aiding rebels in Sierra Leone who committed atrocities during that country's civil war.

Judges found him guilty on all 11 counts of an indictment that included charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, and recruitment of child soldiers.

The court said Taylor did not have command and control of the rebels but was aware of their activities and provided them with weapons and other supplies.

Taylor received so-called "blood diamonds" mined from eastern Sierra Leone in exchange for his support.

The former Liberian leader told judges at a sentencing hearing last month that he has "deepest sympathies" for those who suffered during the civil war.  But he stopped short of admitting any wrongdoing or apologizing for the abuses by the rebels.

Taylor was the first head of state to be convicted by an international court since the Nuremberg trial in 1946 of Karl Doenitz, who briefly ruled Nazi Germany after the death of Adolf Hitler.