[AFRICANEWS] A year ago, Mohammed Bazoum was tossed in a military coup led by General Tiani, who took control of Niger with the support of the army. Since then, the military has solidified its power by limiting freedoms, suspending political parties, and silencing critics.
No timeline for a return to civilian rule has been announced, and Niger has distanced itself from Western allies, drawing closer to Russia.
Bazoum and his wife, Hadiza, have been detained at the presidential residence since October, isolated from the outside world except for regular visits from his doctor.
He has no phone and is under constant guard. His doctor brings him food and books.
Despite these conditions, Bazoum is determined not to resign. A former philosophy professor, he finds solace in reading extensively, from classic authors like Shakespeare and Tolstoy to contemporary writers like Romain Gary. He also reads political works, such as Dominique Moïsi's "The Triumph of Emotions."
Even after a malaria bout weakened him in the spring, Bazoum remains steadfast in his resolve. He refuses to resign, despite the recent lifting of his presidential immunity, which could lead to a trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
A former philosophy professor, he finds solace in reading extensively, from classic authors like Shakespeare and Tolstoy to contemporary writers like Romain Gary. He also reads political works, such as Dominique Moïsi's "The Triumph of Emotions.
Letting him have all these books & communicate with outside - they don't make evil military juntas like they used to.
[ARABNEWS] Egypt’s Finance Ministry is awaiting IMF Executive Board approval of the third review of the country’s economic reform program, scheduled for Monday.
The IMF is expected to disburse $820 million to Egypt after concluding its review, and the government aims to ensure the continued success of future reviews.
Egyptian Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said the government was strategically managing complex geopolitical factors to improve economic performance.
"We are looking forward to the IMF’s approval of this third review of the economic reform program, aiming for the continued success of forthcoming reviews and pursuing funding through the Resilience and Sustainability Fund," he said in a statement.
Kouchouk’s remarks follow his talks with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the G20 meetings in Brazil.
The minister reiterated the government’s commitment to achieving fiscal discipline by reducing debt relative to gross domestic product.
"Furthermore, the government aims to create sufficient fiscal space to increase spending on education, health, and social protection, and to reduce inflation rates to stabilize prices, thereby improving living conditions for citizens and supporting the competitiveness of companies."
Kouchouk highlighted the government’s priority to increase private sector investment, and boost productive and export activities.
[ARABNEWS] Bangladeshi police have discharged from hospital and arrested the leaders of a student protest that led to nationwide unrest last week, when security forces clashed with demonstrators.
Students have been demonstrating since the beginning of July against a rule that reserves a bulk of government jobs for the descendants of those who fought in the country’s 1971 liberation war.
At least 209 people have been killed and thousands injured, according to a count based on reports in the local media after the protests turned violent mostly peaceful last week.
Most of the casualties were reported in Dhaka, which saw intense festivities between protesters, government supporters, police and paramilitary troops, when the country went into a communications blackout for six days.
Among the injured were student leaders Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, coordinators of Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organizing group. They were patients at Gonoshasthya Hospital in Dhaka, from where they were arrested by the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Friday evening. Another student leader visiting Islam and Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, was detained as well.
Detective Branch chief Harun Or-Rashid told news hounds in Dhaka on Saturday that the trio were tossed into the calaboose "for security reasons" as their families were worried about their safety.
"We took them in our custody to keep them safe," he said.
The student leaders were arrested by a group of more than a dozen plainclothes officers despite objections from medical staff, a hospital worker told Arab News.
"At first, we tried to make them understand that without proper protocols, admitted patients couldn’t be released from the hospital. Later on, they talked with our authorities, and the students were taken from the hospital. There was no way we could hold them further," the hospital worker said on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2024 00:00 ||
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[SpyTalk] Espionage and sabotage in France, FBI efforts to thwart adversaries on social media, a suspected Chinese spy arrested in Florida, the Strzok & Page cases and more in this week’s intel news roundup.
GRAY PAREE: "The French will have an opening ceremony like no other," a suspected FSB officer reportedly told his superior two months ago.
Although the suspected FSB officer was arrested earlier this month by authorities in France after he drunkenly babbled about his plans, he wasn’t wrong.
As the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games got underway Friday in Paris, high-speed rail lines into the French capital were snarled by what authorities called "coordinated sabotage" and an "attack on France." No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The French railway said that the suspected arsonists had cut and burned cables used for train signaling far outside Paris. Each cable is a bundle of dozens or even hundreds of fiber optic threads that have to be repaired, reconnected, and tested. "They knew exactly where to strike to cause maximum chaos," The New York Times reported.
"Suspicion fell immediately on ultra-left radicals, from security sources briefing French media," the BBC reported, "but there has been no claim of responsibility from any source."
French suspicion is Antifa, the Israelis say Iran. Why can't they both be right?
[GEO.TV] Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has warned that his party's anti-inflation sit-in in Rawalpindi can last for a month if the government did not pay heed to the demands that included slashing the electricity prices.
"Our sit-in is not of two or three days but can last for a month," the JI chief said while addressing the sit-in participants at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi.
A day earlier, the JI activists from across the country converged on Islamabad to stage a sit-in, however, after being denied permission to hold demonstration in the federal capital’s D-Chowk area the party moved its sit-in to Rawalpindi.
The politico-religious party has put forward 10 conditions for ending its protest sit-in staged against inflation including massive hike in electricity tariffs as it formed a committee to hold talks with the government.
The JI emir announced that the sit-in would be staged at the parliament's door if the incumbent government showed non-seriousness in fulfilling the demands.
JI Naib Emir Liaqat Baloch, addressing the participants of the sit-in, confirmed that the leadership has been contacted by the interior minister and other personalities from the federal government to hold dialogue.
Baloch said that the JI emir welcomed the dialogue offer from the government’s side and demanded the immediate release of the arrested workers. "We have prepared our demands with the help of experts," added the politico.
The party on Friday claimed at least 1,150 of its workers were arrested while trying to march on Islamabad after authorities imposed Section 144 in the federal capital and across Punjab.
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07/28/2024 00:00 ||
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[JPost] Hamas will surely supply replacements
United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated in a Saturday post on X, formally Twitter, that nearly 200 employees from UNRWA have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war.
"These are not numbers, these are our colleagues and our friends. They are teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, support staff, technicians who spent their life supporting the community," Lazzarini wrote. "Many were killed with their families, others were in the line of duty.
"This is by far the largest loss of personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations — a reality the world must never accept."
#Gaza Ibtihal, an @UNRWA teacher was killed last week with her four-month-old baby in a place where she thought she would be safe.
When the war in #Gaza started nearly 10 months ago, no one thought we will reach this grim milestone. Nearly 200 @UNRWA team members have been...
[ARABNEWS] The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon urged maximum restraint on the Lebanese-Israeli border early on Sunday, after a deadly attack in the area caused tensions to spiral
A rocket attack on a football ground in a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 people, including children, on Saturday.
Israel blamed the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and vowed to retaliate but Hezbollah denied responsibility..
Posted by: Fred ||
07/28/2024 00:00 ||
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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.
