Militants attack Muslims in Central African Republic's capital

December 21, 2013
militant
Bangui, Dec 21: In a barbarous act, a group of Christian militants attacked Muslim neighborhoods in the capital of Central African Republic on Friday, as France appealed to European partners for assistance in quelling months of religious violence in its former colony.

Waves of looting, rapes and massacres since the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in March have displaced more than 700,000 people in the poor, landlocked country and revived memories of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

France has deployed 1,600 troops under a UN mandate to protect civilians and support an African Union peacekeeping mission, following an escalation of the violence in early December in which hundreds of people were killed in Bangui.

A semblance of calm had returned to the ramshackle riverside capital in recent days but fighting raged for several hours in the Muslim neighborhoods of PK 5 and Fatima early on Friday following attacks by Christian militias known as anti-balaka.

“They tried to attack other parts of the city and even made an attempt to reach the center of the town,” Guy-Simplice Kodegue, a spokesman for the interim government, told Reuters.

At a summit in Brussels, France's President Francois Hollande appealed for help from European Union partners to restore order in the nation of 4.6 million people.

He said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton would propose options for a joint European mission, to be decided in late January. Poland had already sent 50 airmen to operate a C130 transport plane while Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Holland were providing logistical support, he said.

“I am not asking that troops come to take part in military actions,” Hollande said. “What we need is a presence for specific missions such as protecting the airport, helping security, medical and humanitarian assistance.”

The United States has pledged up to $100 million to support the African Union peacekeeping mission with equipment, training, and logistical support.

President Barack Obama, however, has stopped short of offering to send US troops or voicing strong public support for a possible UN peacekeeping mission.

Three Seleka fighters were shot dead in central Bangui on Friday after one pulled out a grenade at a checkpoint when African Union peacekeepers tried to disarm them. A Congolese soldier was injured in the firefight.

The spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping force MISCA said a Chadian peacekeeper had died of his wounds after an attack on a patrol on Thursday.

MISCA says it has disarmed several thousand Seleka fighters and returned them to barracks. France's Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told TV5 Monde on Friday that French forces were disarming both sides, anti-balaka and Seleka, indiscriminately.

Under the terms of a UN resolution passed on Dec. 5, France hopes to hand over responsibility to security to the MISCA force in six months. The African Union force is due to reach 6,000 troops by the end of January.

“We could even foresee that force going up to 9,000,” said Hollande, who has repeatedly called on African nations in recent months to deal with their own crises as France seeks to shed its image as the continent's policeman. Paris still has nearly 3,000 troops sent to Mali to fight Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said on her Twitter feed Rwanda was preparing to send troops, after the African Union asked it to participate.

Rwanda has been a strong supporter of a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, where the religious and ethnic violence has stirred memories of Rwanda's own 1994 genocide in which 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutus were killed.

The World Food Programme flew an emergency shipment of food and supplies to Bangui on Thursday evening, after temporarily halting flights because of violence in the capital.

With more than 700,000 people displaced by the fighting in Central African Republic, WFP has warned of an impending food crisis. It said on Friday it was preparing to feed more than a million people there next year.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Mexico City, Jun 13: The number of people, who have died of COVID-19 in Mexico, has risen by 544 to 16,448 within the past 24 hours, Jose Luis Alomia, the director of epidemiology at the Health Ministry, said.

He also said on late Friday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases had increased by 5,222 to 139,196 within the same period of time.

A day earlier, the Latin American nation has recorded 4,790 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 587 fatalities.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 7.6 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 425,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Sydney, Jul 28: Nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other native Australian animals were killed or displaced by bushfires in 2019 and 2020, a study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Tuesday, triple the group's earlier estimates.

Some 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were impacted by the country's worst bushfires in decades, the WWF said.

When the fires were still blazing, the WWF estimated the number of affected animals at 1.25 billion. The fires destroyed more than 11 million hectares (37 million acres) across the Australian southeast, equal to about half the area of the United Kingdom.

"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," said WWF-Australia Chief Executive Officer Dermot O'Gorman in a statement.

The project leader Lily Van Eeden, from the University of Sydney, said the research was the first continent-wide analysis of animals impacted by the bushfires, and "other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere".

The total number included animals which were displaced because of destroyed habitats and now faced lack of food and shelter or the prospect of moving to habitat that was already occupied.

The main reason for raising the number of animal casualties was that researchers had now assessed the total affected area, rather than focusing on the most affected states, they said.

After years of drought made the Australian bush unusually dry, the country battled one of its worst bushfire seasons ever from September 2019 to March 2020, resulting in 34 human deaths and nearly 3,000 homes lost.

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Agencies
February 23,2020

Washington, Feb 23: U.S. president Donald Trump on Saturday said he was looking forward to being with his "great friends" in India next week as he retweeted a short video in which his face was superimposed on the hit movie-character Bahubali, showing the president as a great saviour bringing peace to his kingdom.

Trump will pay a state visit to India on February 24 and 25, accompanied by a high-level delegation including first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner and a galaxy of top American officials.

"Look so forward to being with my great friends India!" Trump said in the tweet.

Along with the tweet, Trump retweeted an 81-second video by a Twitter account identified as "Sol" with the handle Solmemes1.

"To celebrate Trump's visit to India I wanted to make a video to show how in my warped mind it will go... USA and India united!" the handle Solmemes1 tweeted in the original post with the video.

Trump appears as a great saviour, in the short animated clip, riding on a chariot with Melania. A few stills later, Trump is seen riding a horse carrying on his shoulders his son Donald Jr and daughter Ivanka.

Later, he is welcomed by Narendra Modi in a village setting. Hundreds and thousands of people are seen welcoming Trump in the video.

"This week Trump will visit India and in celebration I have created a new meme for the occasion... You few, who are my patrons, get to see it first!" Sol told viewers on subscription content service Patreon on Saturday. A few hours later, Trump retweeted the video.

In the Twitter description, Sol describes herself as "award winning master memetician, professor of memology at University of GFY, my views are my own and not associated with real life."

The Trump-Bahubali video, which ends with "USA and India United", went viral after Trump retweeted it. In a few hours, it was seen by nearly 6 lakh people.

Sol in one of her previous posts, dated January 23, writes she was inspired by a video of Bahubali sent to her by a friend, which is the story of 'good defeating evil.'

This inspired Sol to create her first Bahubali-theme meme. The video, lasting 93 seconds, is titled "Jiyo Re Baahu Trump", in which the first lady is seen wearing a saree. "Jiyo Re Bahubali," is the theme song of the video.

"I just loved this video when I saw it! A friend sent it to me and he told me that it is the story of good defeating evil... it was so fitting I had to make it (meme)..." Sol wrote in her post.

Sol's posts show that she is an admirer of Trump. Sol's January 23 video was released at the peak of Trump's impeachment proceedings.

Trump is seen being greeted by an elephant, which bears the logo of the Republican Party.

Towards the end of the video, Trump is seen riding the elephant, and putting on fire the effigy of "Raavan" marked as "D" in a big circle representing the opposition Democratic Party.

An arrow is given by warrior Narendra Modi to the First Lady, who then passes it on to Trump, before he lights the effigy.

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