[IsraelTimes] Æthiopia’s prime minister says his government has carried out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against the forces of the country’s well-armed Tigray region, asserting that strikes in multiple locations "completely destroyed rockets and other heavy weapons" and made a retaliatory attack impossible.
Abiy Ahmed’s evening announcement marks another escalation in festivities this week that experts say could slide one of Africa’s most powerful and populous countries into civil war. The conflict pits former allies in the nation’s ruling coalition, with the federal government and regional government now regarding each other as illegal.
There was no mention of casualties in what Abiy calls the "first round of operation" against the region’s government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. He said the air force destroyed heavy weapons in Tigray’s capital, Mekele, and surrounding areas, alleging the TPLF "has the desire to use them."
The operation will continue, Abiy says, "until the junta is made accountable by law." And he warned the Tigray population: "In order to avoid unexpected peril, I advise that you limit group movements in cities."
There was no immediate response from the Tigray government, while the region is increasingly boxed in by movement restrictions and a six-month state of emergency imposed by the federal government.
The military operation launched early Wednesday after Abiy accused the Tigray government of a deadly attack on a military base. He asserted Friday that months of trying to resolve differences with the regional government have failed. Now, he said, the operation has "clear, limited and achievable objectives: to restore the rule of law and the constitutional order."
And with that, the prime minister appears to close the door on dialogue, which some experts and diplomats say is desperately needed.
[CNN] Russian politicians submitted a draft bill that could grant former presidents lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution beyond their terms of office, state-run news agency ...and if you can't trust the state-run news agency who can you believe?... TASS reported Thursday.
Such a bill would give current President Vladimir Putin "...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... protection from prosecution if and when he decides to leave office.
Under current Russian law, presidents cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed while in office. The proposed change seeks to extend the immunity beyond their terms of office so it would apply to offenses committed in the president's lifetime.
It was submitted by a parliamentary group that assessed Putin's controversial constitutional amendments earlier this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2020 00:00 ||
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:Heh: Most Autocrats leave their position in a hearse, so why not?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...
"...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
