Venezuela election: 'change has begun' as political prisoners may see amnesty

Venezuela awoke to a new political landscape on Monday, after the country’s opposition won an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections in the oil-rich nation struggling with a severe economic crisis and rampant violent crime.
Candidates for the opposition seized a majority in the national assembly, marking a major shift in the polarized country, which set out on a leftist path in 1999 under the late president Hugo Chávez and his project to make Venezuela a model of what he called “21stcentury socialism”.

Fireworks burst in the sky above Caracas as election officials announced partial results of the vote, indicating the opposition coalition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) had broken the dominion that the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has held on the legislature for 16 years.
In the opposition stronghold of Altamira, cars honked their horns in celebration throughout the night.
“Venezuela wanted a change and today that change has begun,” said Jesús Torrealba, leader of the MUD coalition.
The opposition coalition won at least 99 seats in the 167-seat unicameral national assembly, electoral authorities announced early on Monday. The ruling socialist party took 46 seats.
If the opposition take 13 of the 22 remaining races, it would secure a two-thirds supermajority, allowing it to pass major legislation, sack supreme court justices or even convene a convention to rewrite Chávez’s 1999 constitution.

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Torrealba repeated a promise to use the opposition’s new-found strength to work on an amnesty for political prisoners, promising to return the rights of “those who have been unjustly persecuted, jailed, blocked from politics or exiled”.
Venezuela’s best-known jailed politician is Leopoldo López, sentenced to nearly 14 years on charges of promoting political violence in 2014 that killed 43 people. But the opposition has a list of what it says are more than 70 other political prisoners.
President Nicolás Maduro recognized the “adverse results” but said the outcome of the election was not the end to the “Bolivarian revolution” he inherited from Chávez who died in 2013 from cancer.
“We have lost a battle today but now is when the fight for socialism begins,” he said in a late-night address.
Five hours after polls closed, election officials announced partial results, giving the MUD 99 seats and the PSUV 44 seats. The winners of 22 additional seats had yet to be determined.
The vote was seen as a referendum on Maduro’s handling of the country, which despite having the world’s largest oil reserves, faces chronic shortages of basic foods, inflation in the triple digits and a wave of violent crime.
The government says much of the country’s woes are the result of an “economic war” being waged against the government by the opposition and the United States, exacerbated by the shrinking price of oil, Venezuela’s lifeblood.
“The economic war has won, for now, circumstantially,” Maduro said, predicting that the opposition would try to dismantle the gains of the “Bolivarian revolution”, which while oil prices were high established a broad social welfare system that won Chávez a fervent following.
Maduro’s term ends in 2019, but hardliners among the opposition want to force him out next year through a recall referendum.
“I can’t see this government finishing its term because it is too weak,” said opposition leader Henry Ramos. “Internal frictions are beginning. They’re blaming each other for this huge defeat.”
In the working-class 23 de Enero neighbourhood Carlos Ortega, a retired construction worker and long time chavista, worried about an opposition win.
“Things are going to get worse for us,” he said across the street from the school where he had just voted for the chavista candidate of his district.

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“My pension is going to disappear,” he said. “And I can forget about getting assigned a house through the ‘housing mission’,” said Ortega, referring to a current government program to grant social housing to the poor.
“With an opposition win, all that is over,” he said.
But Alexandra Barreto, a 32-year-old systems engineer, hopes that with the opposition controlling the assembly, changes will be positive.
“Today if you aren’t killed by street crime, you die of hunger or from something as simple as dengue,” she said while standing in a long line in the eastern Caracas district of Petare, waiting to cast her vote. “There is no security, basic subsidized foods are scarce and essential medicines are hard to come by.”
“What had to happen, happened,” said Rosa Gutiérrez, a housekeeper, of the opposition victory. “The road ahead won’t be easier but we have to start somewhere,” she said.
The opposition victory was the latest in a string of setbacks for incumbent Latin American populist leaders, including Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose hand-picked candidate Daniel Scioli was defeated last month by the centre-right Mauricio Macri. Latin America’s left gained power in the wake of Chávez’s ascent but more recently has been struggling in the face of a region-wide economic slowdown and voter fatigu

$15m bribery allegation: Nuhu Ribadu lied – Ibori

Chief James Onanefe Ibori has described as horrible, revolting, nasty and totally false, the devilish claim made by Mr. Nuhu Ribadu in several newspapers and on-line publications of Monday 7th December 2015.

Ibori and Ribadu

In a statement released by Chief Ibori’s Media office and signed by Mr. Tony Eluemunor, Chief Ibori’s Media Assistant, Ibori’s first reaction was to once again overlook the wild claim as Ribadu appears to be back at his game.
“As the Senate and some security agencies appear to be asking questions about some unwholesome events at the EFCC, including the mismanagement and criminal diversion of funds from the sale of confiscated properties into personal pockets, Ribadu may have a need to attempt to burnish his fading image, fearing the investigations may ask questions about events during his tenure. But he should be told that lying, against even an enemy, just to gain some unearned applause and perhaps fence off some approaching investigation and image disaster,must have a limit,” the statement reads.
Ribadu claimed in the news reports: “Ibori approached me with $15million to stop his investigation. I called my people because the money was in big bags, which two people could not carry and we deposited it in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as evidence against him”.
“This nonsensical statement has remained in the public domain only because some people have suspended their sense of disbelief and condemned themselves to every hogwash that Ribadu invents in the attempt spruce himself up in borrowed plums”.
“It is on record that Ribadu has made at least five statements over this same claim, and no single one agreed with another. Also both Ibrahim Lamorde (the immediate past EFCC Chairman(and one James Garba, a CBN staff then seconded to the EFCC, made police statements which contradicted Ribadu’s. Even Senator Andy Uba said in a statement that EFCC collected the said money from his house’.
‘Nigerians should know that it was the money from Obasanjo’s Third Term Tenure elongation bid that was dressed up as a bribe just to demonize Ibori. Some five billion dollars were employed to bribe the national and state legislatures to support the accursed project, with certain individuals receiving from N50 to N200 million’.
“The attempt to shoot Ibori down began in 2003, when some PDP Governors were opposed to Obasanjo’s second term bid. That money, sourced from wherever, was used against Ibori, as part of that long-time ‘bring Ibori down project’ . We challenge any newspaper or magazine to check all the statements on this bribery allegation and see how each of them, including Ribadu’s five different statements, howls to Ribadu himself: “you are a damned liar”. We challenge the journalists to please hasten to prove us liars by looking into those statements”.
In this latest report, Ribadu told another damned lie: “I arrested Ibori and prosecuted him. Since his friend was in power, they removed me, sent me to a school as a student where I was once a teacher”.
Source: Vanguard news

Buhari, Atiku, others urge PDP to learn from APC’s success story

President Mohammadu Buhari and other eminent Nigerians, Monday, challenged the PDP and other opposition parties in the country to learn from the tenacity and rough path to glory of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in order to advance the democratic space and good governance in the country.
They threw the challenge at the public presentation ceremony of the book: From Opposition to Governing Party: Nigeria’s APC Merger Story, written by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, at Yar’ Adua’s Centre, Abuja.
In his remarks, President Mohammadu Buhari, described the book as a compendium of political history of APC’s success story, worthy of emulation by every opposition party.
The President, who commended Onu for authoring the book, traced the history of APC’s merger, which said was a very torteous journey for all the merger forces that gave birth to the ruling party.
He said the book would not only be an asset to the economic development of the country but also politically. He stressed the need for every politician and parties to learn for the book what it takes to rise from opposition to ruling party, describing it as an intellectual exercise.
‘‘Onu has not only contributed economically by writing this book but politically. It is a product of intellectual and political work. We are inclined not to learn from the history but this book will serve as a compendium of our checkered political history for everyone to learn from our political past and move the nation forward.
‘‘Without the emergence of APC, PDP would have killed Nigeria. That is why we stood our ground tenaciously in the midst of failures and difficulties to form APC. After I lost three times in the presidential election I decided not to contest again but people came and persuaded me to run again, saying that, ‘‘I no longer belong to myself but to them and urged me to accept their request.’’
He however, challenged the Minister to use his wealth of experience and intellect to transform the nation through his ministry by producing creative and innovative scientists.
‘‘As a scientist, I can trace my relationship with Ogbonnaya Onu to 2005, during the early days of the formation of APC merger. I throw the challenge to him and I would want to see how many world class scientist he will produce for Nigeria,’’ he said.
Earlier in his address, former Vice President and Chairman of the occasion, Atiku Abubakar, said Onu’s appointment was a well-deserved.
He described the Minister as a gentle man, with amazing intellect with sense of focus, humility and honesty.
He said the book represents story of patriotism, hope, determination and sacrifice for humility and above all for change, which Nigerian have long awaited.
‘‘It is amazing for him to find time to chronicle a book on the progressives to come together in the interest of the country to provide alternative leadership.
‘‘For me, it is a story of patriotism and hope, determination, sacrifice for humility and above all for change,’’ he added.
The former Vice President went further to commend the author for putting together the history of the ruling party and how it snatched power from the former ruling party, the People Democratic Party (PDP), which he said ‘‘has lost its soul and abandoned its patriotic principles.’’
For him, the story of APC, will place Nigeria as a reference point for other African countries to learn from.
‘‘Nigeria’s story in Africa makes this a story of innermost lessons for all African countries. I have no doubt that you have the capacity for a multi-task to drive the ministry of science and technology to the desired level,’’ he said.
In his goodwill message, the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwa, said his emergence as the Speaker of the seventh Assembly was as a result of the effort of all the forces that formed APC.
Tambuwa, who described Onu as a man of many parts, said the book will ever remain a reference point for all political parties, which for him was a classical outing for Dr. Onu.
Source: Emmanuel Elebeke

Aisha Buhari commends Ambode’s donation to displaced persons

The Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has commended Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State for donating N150m to Internally Displaced Persons in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
The commendation is contained in a statement signed by Buhari’s Special Assistant on Media, Mrs Adebisi Ajayi, on Friday in Abuja.
Buhari said the gesture would help to ameliorate the sufferings of IDPs in various camps in the affected states as well as in their rehabilitation, and urged other states and individuals to emulate the governor.

She said insurgency had remained a major challenge in the country but expressed optimism that it would soon be a thing of the past.
She appealed to governors of the affected states to take measures at ensuring that children in the IDPs’ camps were properly catered for.
“I am grieved as a mother that children can go through such appalling conditions in their country,” Buhari said, noting that malnutrition rate of children in the camps had risen.
She explained that children had specialised nutritional needs, and said “the current situation underscores the importance of highly specialised nutritional support for this category of children.”
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Ambode had on October 21, presented three cheques of N50m each to the governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, respectively, shortly after the Council of State meeting.

US budget deal close to passing through Senate following key procedural vote

 
The ambitious budget and debt deal cleared a major hurdle in the US Senate early Friday, setting the stage for Congress to pass the measure and send it to President Barack Obama.
The Senate voted 63-35, giving the bill the 60 votes necessary to end any delaying tactics. Several of the Republican presidential candidates had criticized the legislation, which is aimed at averting a catastrophic default, avoiding a partial shutdown and setting government spending priorities for two years.
Obama negotiated the accord with Republican and Democratic leaders who were intent on steering Congress away from the brinkmanship and shutdown threats that have haunted lawmakers for years. Former Speaker John Boehner felt a particular urgency days before leaving Congress, while lawmakers looked ahead to presidential and congressional elections next year.

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The opposition was strong in the Senate, and White House hopeful Republican Senator Rand Paul left the campaign trail and returned to the Capitol to criticize the deal as excessive Washington spending.
Another Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, speaking on the Senate floor late on Thursday, complained that Republican majorities had given Obama a “diamond-encrusted, glow-in-the-dark Amex card” for government spending.
The agreement raises the government debt ceiling until March 2017, removing the threat of an unprecedented national default that would have come in a few days. At the same time it sets the budget of the government through the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years and eases punishing spending caps by providing $80bn more for military and domestic programs, paid for with a hodgepodge of spending cuts and revenue increases touching areas from tax compliance to spectrum auctions.
The deal would also avert a looming shortfall in the social security disability trust fund that threatened to slash benefits, and head off an unprecedented increase in Medicare premiums for outpatient care for about 15 million beneficiaries.
The promise of more money for the military ensured support from defense hawks like Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, while additional funds for domestic programs pleased Democrats.
Obama and Democratic allies like House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California were big winners in the talks, but Republican leaders cleared away political land mines confronting the party on the eve of 2016 campaigns to win back the White House and maintain its grip on the Senate.
The measure leaves a clean slate for new Speaker Paul Ryan as he begins his leadership of the House.

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Obama had repeatedly said he would not negotiate budget concessions in exchange for increasing the debt limit, though he did agree to package the debt and budget provisions.
“I am as frustrated by the refusal of this administration to even engage on this [debt limit] issue,” said finance committee chairman Orrin Hatch. “However the president’s refusal to be reasonable and do his job when it comes to our debt is no excuse for Congress failing to do its job and prevent a default.”
The budget relief would lift caps on the appropriated spending passed by Congress each year by $50bn in 2016 and $30bn in 2017, evenly divided between defense and domestic. Another $16bn or so would come each year in the form of inflated war spending, evenly split between the defense and state departments.
The appropriations committees will have to write legislation to reflect the spending and face an 11 December deadline.
The cuts include curbs on Medicare payments for outpatient services provided by certain hospitals and an extension of a two percentage point cut in Medicare payments to doctors through the end of a 10-year budget. There is also a drawdown from the strategic petroleum reserve and savings reaped from a justice department fund for crime victims that involves assets seized from criminals.

I DJ, therefore I am: Floating Points on musical experiments and marathon sets

On paper, Sam Shepherd makes an unlikely dance-music trailblazer. There’s the PhD in neuroscience. There’s his gentle demeanour, more akin to a bookish vinyl nerd than a international 24-hour party boy. And there’s his handmade album artwork – drawn using a harmonograph that he built in his studio himself. The 29-year-old also likes to test his audience: his forthcoming live shows will feature an 11-piece orchestra; for a recent six-hour set at Berlin techno haven Berghain – a booking that was “as much to my surprise as everyone else’s” – he played the album Harvest Time by spiritual jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders in its entirety.
In addition, Shepherd is, perhaps, the only musician to have been given a philosophy book during a DJ set. “A girl came up to me at a gig in San Francisco and said, ‘I think you might like this, you should read it,’” he recalls, sipping at a rhubarb gin that matches his top. “It was a David Eagleman book called Sum, which is 40 short stories about what the afterlife might be and atomic reincarnation, where you get to heaven and God is presented to you as a bacteria, and of the absorbance of life …” I give him a look that suggests he has lost me. “I know,” he says, and laughs.
We’re in Brilliant Corners, a low lit DJ bar-restaurant in Dalston, east London, where discerning vintage sounds spill out of an expensive-looking speaker stack behind us. Shepherd, however, isn’t a tiresome chinstroker. Under the Zen-like moniker Floating Points, his DJ sets are brainy but banging; his own productions distil his spiritual jazz, classical, soul and broken-beat influences (by his hazy estimation, he owns 10,000 vinyl records) into sparky house and techno shufflers. He can release an EP with a string ensemble, but he can also entertain the face chompers at 6am.
Still, Shepherd finds it frustrating that he is often made out to be some sort of techno Einstein. “The worst question I get asked is the one where people try and draw a parallel between science and music,” he groans. “It is possible that the two exist exclusively of each other, but apparently that’s not a good enough answer.” As a young boy, Shepherd was a chorister at Manchester Cathedral and went on to study piano at Chetham’s School of Music. His father is a vicar and the family vicarage turned into a studio for musical experiments: “I could set up cellos in the kitchen, drum kits in my sister’s room,” he says mischievously. A teacher gave him some jazz records and it was then that he “stopped thinking of classical and jazz as two different things”, and started seeing them harmoniously. “Kenny Wheeler is so beautiful that [his music] could have been Rachmaninov,” he enthuses. “And Bill Evans is similar to the colourfulness of Debussy.”

Meanwhile, his appetite for records became serious. When he moved to London to study for his PhD, he would save up his student loan to travel around the US hunting for old music. “We’d go digging for weeks, stay in motels, and bring back as many records as we could find,” he says. “They were cheaper than CDs.” He learned how to DJ properly by watching the owners of Peabody Records in Chicago, which also perhaps inspired his love of the marathon set. “They would start playing tunes at 10am and go through the records that had been brought in all day. I saw it and thought, that’s how it’s done.”
Today, Shepherd has kindred spirits and close friends in Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) and Caribou (Dan Snaith). They have a passion for obscure records, and enjoy throwing low-key parties on the fly, where the guilty blue glow of Shazam is always peeking out of someone’s pocket near the booth. Here, in Brilliant Corners’ intimate backroom, Shepherd and Hebden recently hosted an impromptu Sunday-night party – just for fun. The weekend after, all three played at Hebden’s Brixton Academy all-nighter where, in the face of inflated ticket prices, they only charged £5 to get in.

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The place that most inspired their idealistic approach to club culture was Shoreditch’s Plastic People, which closed in January this year. The trio would often DJ there together, holding that music heard on a decent sound system in pitch-black, with no distractions, had the power to take you somewhere else. “Everyone on the dancefloor was one body,” says Shepherd of the memorable nights in that rave basement. “You felt like something more than the music, something entirely transcendental, was happening. The ambience in the room and everything came together in a way that was more than the sum of its parts.”
He could as easily be talking about his debut album, Elaenia. Comprised of seven “suites”, it builds delicately with strings, piano, dizzying time signatures, dappling synths and drones until it engulfs you. Silhouettes (I, II & III) starts with a restless drumbeat and blossoms into 10 cinematic minutes of romantic, careening strings and a steady swell of choir-like voices. The titular track – inspired by a poetic dream that Shepherd had about a bird trapped in a forest, after reading Eagleman’s Sum – is more abstract, a pearlescent piano melody caught in layers of static and synth. Some songs implode, others turn inside out.
Much of this experimental composition is filtered through a contemporary prism of influences, some more intentional than others. The final track, Peroration Six, is like something Radiohead might have come out with during an unhinged Kid A take. But Shepherd was particularly drawn to the recording of Talk Talk’s 1991 album Laughing Stock. He tried many of its techniques, down to the oil projectors that the band used to create an intense studio atmosphere. “Listening to that record is where I started to realise that you can’t separate the music from the recording,” he explains. “So if you work hard at making records sound a certain way then it can enhance the music itself.”

Like his favourite spiritual jazz records, Elaenia is improvisational and designed to be heard in one go. But Shepherd says he “finds it difficult to reconcile not being religious with being into spiritual music”. Instead, he admires the genre architecturally. “Spiritual jazz, for me, feels like building a space out of nothing and within that space [the musicians] build their house, their city, their entire universe through music,” he says excitedly. “They exist in this black hole and they All of which, to be honest, is starting to sound a bit rollneck jumper. But Shepherd winces at the idea of anyone using the word “jazzy” to describe his music, as if it could be found on the kind of compilation that would’ve played in a hotel lobby in 1998. “It’s very sad to be misunderstood. You can press play and have prejudices about what jazz is or isn’t, but I like to imagine I make music that doesn’t require the listener to have any prior knowledge or reference points.” After all, he adds, “what kind of boring music is that?” Elaenia is anything but boring; even in its chaos, it is beautiful. It builds like a hypnotic DJ set – a soothing balm after a hard day in the office; a respite from a packed train full of screaming children where you can’t sit down. Some people are angry Shepherd hasn’t made Floating Points: The Bangerz album, he says, but he hopes they will find Elaenia “inviting in some way” in spite of that. “I would like to feel that a person walks into an empty room and that, through listening to the record, the room is built for them without trying to push them out at any point,” he explains. “I’m trying to draw people in.” You don’t need a thesis to enter Sam Shepherd’s lab – an open mind will do.

• Elaenia is out on Pluto Records on 6 November. Floating Points plays live at Islington Assembly Hall, London N1, on 17 November.

Hurricane Patricia: Texas feels effects of storm as flooding pummels state

Dangerous flooding was occurring in Texas in the early hours of Saturday, as gushing waters closed the interstate between Dallas and Houston and caused a freight train to completely derail and overturn.

Hurricane Patricia: fears of landslides in Mexico as storm brings downpours

A creek that broke its banks near Corsicana in the north of the state swept away train tracks in the night, causing a Union Pacific freight train to collapse into the flood waters around 3.30am a spokesman for the rail company said. The two crew members were forced to swim to safety.
More than 16in of rain fell Friday in the Corsicana area as the outer reaches of hurricane Patricia, which made landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico, were felt across the south-central US. The rain was still heavy and steady as Saturday began.
Parts of Louisiana, southern Oklahoma and Arkansas were under flash flood alert and torrential, relentless rain was expected to persist through Saturday and in some cases into Monday.
One man was missing in the San Antonio area of Texas, after entering a ditch of swift flood water in attempt to rescue his dog.

US and Russia discuss prospect of talks between Syrian leaders and opposition

 
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, and Russia’s foreign minister have spoken about holding talks between the Syrian government and the opposition.
In a telephone conversation on Saturday held at the request of Kerry, he and Sergei Lavrov also discussed enlisting other countries in the region to help push the political process forward, the Russian foreign ministry said.
Lavrov also appeared on Russian state TV on Saturday urging an intensification of efforts to find a political solution to the war. He said Moscow was ready to coordinate with the US in fighting terrorism in Syria.
He also said that Russia would be ready to help western-backed Free Syrian Army rebels if it knew their locations.
Lavrov said that the Kremlin wanted Syria to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections and that Russia was prepared to provide air support to the Free Syrian Army, as Moscow intensified its drive to convert its increased clout with Damascus into a political settlement.
The Kremlin – Bashar al-Assad’s strongest foreign ally, has spoken broadly about the need for elections in Syria before. However, Lavrov’s comments represent a notable shift in Russia’s position.
The shift follows a meeting on Friday with the US and other countries to discuss a political solution to the Syria crisis and comes just days after a surprise visit by Assad to Moscow.
Lavrov said: “External players cannot decide anything for the Syrians. We must force them to come up with a plan for their country where the interests of every religious, ethnic and political group will be well protected.”

He also said the continued US refusal to coordinate its military campaign in Syria with Moscow was “a big mistake”.
The comments follows criticism of Russia’s military intervention in Syria by the Gulf Cooperation Council. Its assistant secretary-general, Abdel Aziz Abu Hamad Aluwaisheg, said that the action taken by Russia was “the best gift that could be given to terrorist groups”.

“I think it has the potential of being a very dangerous escalation between the superpowers, between Russia and the US,” he told the BBC.
“I think we’re all concerned about that and I think the Russian decision that was made without consultation, without coordination with the international coalition to fight Daesh [Isis] is unfortunate, and I think it could cause dangerous escalation.”
Aluwaisheg warned that Russia’s military intervention risked bolstering terrorist groups, saying it would help them recruit more members from all over the world. He said: “I think it probably will happen in Syria if the Russian intervention continues.”
His comments came as the Russian defence ministry said its planes had flown 934 sorties and destroyed 819 militant targets in Syria since the start of its operation on 30 September, the Interfax news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Kerry, was flying to Saudi Arabia for further talks on the conflict in Syria.

FBI Director Blames Crime On Police Misconduct Videos AP/HuffPost By Christopher Sherman

CHICAGO (AP) — Police anxiety in the era of ever-present cellphone cameras and viral videos partly explains why violent crime has risen in several large U.S. cities this year, FBI Director James Comey said Friday.
Comey told several hundred students during a forum at the University of Chicago Law School that it's critical to do more to address a widening gulf between law enforcement and citizens in many communities, particularly African-Americans.
He said while there likely are multiple factors behind the spike in violence in cities, including Chicago, officers and others nationwide have told him they see "the era of viral videos" as a link.
"I don't know whether this explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year, and that wind is surely changing behavior," Comey said.
He added that some of the behavioral change in police officers has been for the good "as we continue to have important discussions about police conduct and de-escalation and the use of deadly force."
Comey likened the strain between law enforcement and local communities to two lines diverging, saying repeatedly that authorities must continue to work at improving their relationships with citizens. But he added: "I actually feel the lines continuing to arc away from each other, incident by incident, video by video."
The New York Times reported that Comey's remarks "caught officials by surprise at the Justice Department," where many do not agree with his explanation. Several officials there "privately fumed" over his opinion, according to the paper.
Most of the country's 50 largest cities have seen an increase in shootings and killings, he said, citing Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas and others. In Washington, D.C., he said homicides are up more than 20 percent. And he added that Baltimore is averaging more than one homicide a day — a rate higher than New York City, which has 13 times the people.
"Why is it happening ... all over and all of a sudden?" he asked. "I've heard a lot of theories — reasonable theories."
He suggested other factors, including the availability of cheaper heroin, guns getting into the wrong hands for wrongdoing, and street gangs becoming smaller and more territorial.
But he said his conversations with officers often come back to cellphones. He said they describe encounters with young people and their cellphone cameras "taunting" them "the moment they get out of their cars."
"They told me, 'We feel like we're under siege and we don't feel much like getting out of our cars,'" Comey said.
He said he has been told about higher-ranking police telling officers "to remember that their political leadership has no tolerance for a viral video."
A spokesman for the ACLU of Illinois, Ed Yohnka, said later Friday he disagreed with Comey's assessment.
"Police officers who respect civilians and the law will only enhance the reputation of their departments when recorded by civilians," Yohnka said. "And officers should be trained to conduct themselves with professionalism regardless of whether a camera is recording them."

Amber Rose poses completely nude for GQ magazine..18+

Amber Rose took it all off for GQ magazine  - the inside spread was just released and its hot. Amber is 32 years old today..shares same birthday with Kim K. See full pic after the cut...

Saraki should resign over CCT trial – Poll

Saraki in the accused box at the CCT

Respondents to an online poll on PUNCH website have demanded the resignation of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President to answer charges of false asset declaration levelled against him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

The respondents participated in an online poll on PUNCH website, www.punchng.com, asking the readers to answer the question: Should Dr. Bukola Saraki resign as Senate President over his alleged false assets declaration case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal?

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The survey required the participants to indicate either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

One thousand, seven hundred and fifty nine respondents participated in the poll, which opened on Monday, September 28, 2015 and closed on Thursday, October 8, 2015.

Demanding the resignation of the Senate President, 1,226 respondents, representing 70 per cent of the participants believed Saraki should resign by indicating a ‘Yes’.

On the other hand, 533 respondents, which represent 30 per cent of the participants, are of the opinion that Saraki, a former Presidential Adviser to Olusegun Obasanjo and the immediate past Kwara State governor, should not resign as the Senate President.

The Code of Conduct Bureau had dragged Saraki, who emerged the President of the Senate in controversial circumstances on Tuesday, June 9, before the CCT on charges bordering on false declaration of assets, especially during his time as the Kwara State’s helmsman between 2003 and 2011.

Saraki had battled unsuccessfully to stop his arrest and arraignment before the tribunal through his suits before a Federal High Court in Abuja and the Court of Appeal in the Federal Capital Territory.

When he finally made his dramatic appearance at the CCT on Tuesday, September 22, he pleaded not guilty to the 13 counts filed against him before the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Danladi Umar, adjourned the case to October 21 and 22 for continuation of trial.

In pleading his innocence before Justice Umar, the accused had alleged that he was being politically-vilified for emerging the Senate President.

Buhari appoints Oyo-Ita as Head of Service

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved the appointment of Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, as the acting Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

A statement by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Bolaji Adebiyi, said the appointment took effect from Wednesday, October 21, 2015.
Oyo-Ita was, until her appointment, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
She hails from Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State.
The statement described the appointment as “a testimony of Mr. President’s implicit confidence and trust” in her ability to discharge the responsibilities of the office of Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

The Presidency had on Tuesday clarified the exit of the erstwhile Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, which it described as “retirement.”

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Communications, Mr. Femi Adesina, made the clarification in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja, amidst speculations that the HoS was sacked.

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Adesina had said, “The Head of Service is due for retirement in December and so he is proceeding on his terminal leave.”

Kifasi was appointed HoS by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on August 13, 2014.

Mimiko unveils Shoprite, promises support for entrepreneurs

Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on Wednesday unveiled the Shoprite outlet in Akure, the state capital, where he reiterated his administration’s commitment to providing enabling environment for small and medium scale businesses to thrive.
Unveiling the outlet, located in the premises of the old Owena Motel, Akure, the governor assured the people that the mall would add value to the economic landscape of the state, stressing that  it would also provide opportunities for domestic retailers to by enhancing effective supply chain process.
He noted that the Mall would create employment opportunities as well as boost the economy of the state.
Mimiko said, “Looking forward in the next couple of weeks, the Dome will be back along this corridor and this place will be the commercial hub of sort. At the end of all these, our people will be gainfully engaged and the multiplier effect on our economy will truly be great.
“The excitement is not just having the Akure Mall, but about the opportunity for our local retailers to ply their trade and also about the opportunity for a supply chain that will originate from this state.”

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Chief Executive Officer of Top Services Limited, the developer of the Mall, Mr. Tokunbo Omisore, commended Mimiko for providing the enabling environment for  the project and also for fast-tracking every aspect of the contract agreement.
According to him, the Mall will provide  jobs for no fewer than 1,000 residents of Ondo State, adding that entrepreneurs and small and medium scale businessmen would be able to showcase their products, especially farm produce.

In photos: Faces at the Council of State Meeting

From left: President Muhammadu Buhari; Former Head of State, President Badamasi Babangida; Former Chairman, Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Last Military Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubabakar and a Former Chief Justice of Nigeria. Muhammad Uwais during the meeting of the National Council of State chaired by President Buhari at the Aso Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

From left: Former Head of State, President Badamasi Babangida;Akwa Ibom State Governor, Former Chairman, Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna Stat and Last Military Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubabakar during

Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Irahim Hadejia; Plateau State Governor, Solomon Lalong; Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello; Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode; Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State; Governor Rochas Okowrocha of Imo State and Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State

From left: Plateau State Governor, Solomon Lalong; Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Hadejia; Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello; Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State; Governor Rochas Okowrocha of Imo State Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode; and Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State

From left: Plateau State Governor, Solomon Lalong; Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Hadejia; Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello; Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State; Governor Rochas Okowrocha of Imo State Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode; and Governor Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe State

Lagos State Governor, Akinwumi Ambode; Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State; and Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina

MASSOB faction condemns arrest of Radio Biafra Director

ABAKALIKI-THE faction of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB weekend called on the Federal government to immediately release the Radio Biafra Director, Nnamdi Kanu who was arrested by the Department of State Security, DSS in Lagos state.

Director of pirate radio, Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu

In a statement issued in Abakaliki, the National Director of Information, MASSOB, Comrade Uchenna Madu threatened that any refusal by the federal government to ensure the release of Kanu would lead to a world wide demonstration, protest which would endanger the already battered image of Nigeria before the international communities.
The statement read in part: “MASSOB Faction condemned the cowardly arrest and detention of Radio Biafra Director but also accept the fact that it is part of non violence struggle; no agitation is complete without arrest, detention & prosecution.
“It shape the minds of the activist, drawing sympathy from the internal and external observers. It also shows that Nnamdi Kanu and Radio Biafra have become a factor of reckoning in Nigeria.
“The arrest & detention of Nnamdi Kanu by DSS will assist immensely in reviving the consciousness & sympathy for Biafra actualization in higher dimension which was temporary halted by Ralph Uwazuruike’s deviation & lust of wealth.
“This singular arrest will cause more diplomatic harm on Nigeria’s image than good. Before Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest, he has succeeded in rooting the Biafra struggle in about 78 countries including Biafraland
“Through Radio Biafra, International tour & secret diplomatic build up. MASSOB warns Nigeria Govt to quickly release Nnamdi Kanu now or arraign him in a competent court of justice or face an eruption of Biafra world wide demonstration, protest which will endanger the already battered image of Nigeria before the international communities and cause more diplomatic harm to Nigeria”

Military alone can’t win Boko Haram war — Osinbajo

In a recent visit to Pretoria, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo tells select South Africa-based Nigerian journalists measures the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has put in place to combat terrorism, poverty among others

President Muhammadu Buhari was here (South Africa) for the African Union summit where one of the topics of discussion was African security, how far have you gone in achieving this?

Nigeria has several concerns in terms of security. We are co-operating at the moment with the Lake Chad Basin Authority and all of the countries there. Insurgency generally is what is happening in several layers of West Africa, the horn area and many areas in the North East of Nigeria. In those areas there is Islamic insurgency with all the problems associated with it. For Nigeria, the critical concerns are how to stop what appears to be a growing tendency of insurgency in these areas; and we think we can. We think if we are able to keep our borders, especially the Lake Chad Basin areas and our countries safe, it will be a critical input we are making into African peace and security. A lot has gone into co-operation in that neighbourhood already. We have a joint task force in the area that is led by Nigeria. We have also made significant contributions in terms of financing the whole efforts. All the countries in that neighbourhood are cooperating. The president has spent considerable time going round involving the countries in the Lake Chad Basin area, in the collaboration and effort to contain and eradicate terrorism in our individual countries.

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How would you explain the recent spate of blasts in Nigeria? Would you say that your efforts are faltering or are there challenges we don’t know about?

I am sure that you recognise that there are several aspects of terrorism. Only one is essentially the military aspect. The military aspect of it, as you can see, is practically won in the sense that we’ve degraded the forces of insurgency recently. We do not think that they have the capacity to operate militarily in any significant way. And we think that in the next couple of months, we should be able to deal decisively with that. But the cowardly act of using IED, strapping up young children with IED and leading them into detonating bombs remotely are not really things you can deal with purely militarily. I mean these are just cowardly acts by a few individuals. Anyone can do some of the things that they are doing. Literally, somebody coming from behind you and smashing a huge stone on your head to kill you when you are not looking so long as they are prepared to die. In other words, we must distinguish between these suicide bombers and the overall threat of insurgency in the country. And that distinction is important because of the way we would tackle it. Tackling these bombings, has a lot to do with being vigilant; vigilance on the part of the local populace. Education of the local populace is also important, because some of these young girls who strap on IEDS and go to market place to bomb it don’t even know what they are doing. They don’t even know that they would die. And so, that aspect of it has to be dealt with by more public education which we are starting. National orientation using radio and all kinds of media to ensure that people understand that these are the kinds of dastardly act we have.

Some say beyond education, the issue is poverty; that people are willing to die just to get money for their families. What is your take?

I think it goes beyond that. I am not so sure. I think it has to do with deprivation and all that. But poverty is an important part of the whole sense of alienation that gives rise to some of these problems. I agree with you entirely and I think it’s a concern that the government has. And that is why we have the Presidential Initiative on the North East as some of the work we are doing in that area. I think education is crucial. People need to be educated, to be empowered to work, to find work to so. And of course, we need to do some social investment. Talking about social investment, we are talking about conditional cash transfers and free meals programme. Some of those things are direct investments in the lives of the people. We think that is important to take people out of poverty. But frankly, I don’t think that poverty by itself offers any explanation for somebody to want to blow themselves up. I don’t think it is sufficient. I think there is also brainwashing.

In a recent interview you granted, you talked about diversification of the economy. How do you hope to do that in the face of glaring infrastructural challenges?

It is true we have to deal with the infrastructural challenges and we have to deal with everything practically simultaneously. For example, we need to deal with power, because we need power to do most of what we say we want to do. And, we have to handle that as soon as possible. Then, we have to deal with road network, because we have agricultural plans. That is one of the major plans of the diversification. We are looking at agriculture especially the area of rice, wheat and oil palm production; which at the moment constitute a significant drain on our foreign exchange. Presently, we import about $3 billion quantity of rice and wheat and palm oil. Now, all of these are in the agricultural areas, where we feel we can do a lot more. If we are able to be self-sufficient in rice and wheat production, not only would we have saved significantly, we would also have created significant jobs in actual farming and in the whole agro-allied chain. That is why we have the silos that we built and the milling facilities that we have for rice. A lot of those things need to be oiled; they need to be kept well. If we are able to achieve these, I am sure that we would have significantly contributed to a whole effort of diversification. We are developing the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises also. We are also going to be involving market women across the country. We are looking at how to support their businesses, by working through co-operative societies. These are individuals who are entrepreneurs in their own right, but are usually ignored because they don’t fit into the formal definition of a MSMEs. But we think that they need to be involved in this. Once we are able to bring them in, we will be able to help them access finance and help them with financial planning, with projections and acquiring inventories for whatever it is they are selling.

A lot of Nigerians outside the country are being stigmatised and abused. Also a lot of innocent Nigerians die. What does the life of an average Nigerian mean to your government? What does your government intend to do with countries where Nigerians are residing?

I think President Buhari made that very important point, and he said that the life of every Nigerian is worth his own life; that he takes the life of every Nigerian seriously enough. And that is very important to hear. And I think that that is a very significant thing coming from the president of the country. I think that the issue really is how we ourselves in these various countries we are in can give ourselves significant support, not only in reporting but also highlighting these issues. This is because there are many places that we don’t even have the consular capacity to assist and help people fight for their rights. In the past few months, a lot of efforts have gone into creating channels through which the Diaspora can speak to the government. And, I have been facilitating quite a few activities with the people in the Diaspora. We just attended a major Diaspora event in Abuja where we had significant interactions about that. I think that the most important thing is what we are able to do for ourselves and the amount of importance we attach to ourselves. To what extent are we our brother’s keepers? People need to know, government needs to know what is going on. The major thing is not so much about what the life of a person in the Diaspora worth; it is what does the life of a Nigerian worth anywhere a Nigerian is. And I think that part of what is important to us as a government is in ensuring not just in words but in actions, that the Nigerian life is important. That’s why we have for the first time, a government that has committed itself to huge social investment. Thus, it is not so much the life of somebody in Diaspora, but more of the life of a Nigerian. What is the life of a Nigerian worth? And we think that has to be reflected not in terms of just what you say, but in terms of the protection of the rights of people and what you are investing in the lives of Nigerians. And that’s what we are committed to as a government.

It is believed that there is lopsidedness rather than reciprocity in the operation of businesses by South Africans in Nigeria and vice versa. What is your view?

One of the critical things that we are doing is bilateral relation and we are trying to expand the whole scope of co-operation between Nigeria and South Africa. Now, when you make the argument that there seems to be a lopsidedness in number of South African companies doing business in Nigeria and the number of Nigerian companies doing business in South Africa, you are probably right. But if you look at the balance of trade, we are doing better. And that’s the argument South Africa will always bring up. In terms of balance of trade, we are at an advantage. It isn’t as if there is a great deal of unfairness on one side or the other. They too can also talk about imbalance. But having said that, one of the critical things that we intend to talk to South Africa about is how we can do more business in South Africa; how Nigerian businesses can be better occupied here. Nigerian banks are anxious to come and do business in South Africa. They are in other parts of the world; they are in Zambia, Ghana and some other places. Thus, obviously, they would like to be able to open up here and start business. And we intend to promote that as much as possible. We intend to cooperate in defence as well as to see different ways we can work together in those areas. We have a great opportunity now because both President Jacob Zuma and President Buhari have a good chemistry and we think that there is a good opportunity to expand the scope of business both ways.

 SOURCE:

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Diego Costa’s goal lifts Chelsea’s mood (Chelsea 2- 0 Aston Villa)

Chelsea’s Diego Costa lifted the mood of the distressed Mourinho’s side after getting his goal following  a horrendous mistake made by Aston Villa’s back.

Chelsea’s Brazilian-born Spanish striker Diego Costa

Villa may have played the better football in this first half, but a horrendous mistake at the back has cost them dearly. Guzan’s poor pass to Lescott is cut out by Willian, who then charges into the box and squares for Costa to tap the ball in from close range. It was a howler from the keeper and it has suddenly lifted the mood at Stamford Bridge.
Recall that the Blues have endured a miserable start to the new season and have won just two of their eight league matches.
It’s another cruel blow for Villa, as Chelsea double their lead thanks to a second goal for Costa. The Blues break quickly and the Brazilian is picked out by a pass over the top from Fabregas. He then cuts inside onto his right foot and fires in a drive which takes a huge deflection of Hutton and leaves Guzan wrong footed as it drops into the net.

EFCC quizzes Ex-gov, Akpabio again

Former Akwa-Ibom State Governor and current Senate Minority Leader, Chief Godswill Akpabio has returned to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja for questioning as part of investigations into allegations of N108.1 billion fraud against him while serving as Governor of his state between 2007 and 2015.

Akpabio

Akpabio was first questioned on Friday and left the facility at about 9PM local time.
He was again accompanied to the EFCC on Saturday by his lawyers led by Mr. Ricky Tarfa SAN and some aides.

Pope to visit mosque, slum, refugee camp in Africa – Vatican

Pope Francis will visit a refugee camp and a mosque in the Central African Republic as well as a slum in Kenya during a trip to Africa next month loaded with potential security risks.
The pontiff will be in Kenya from November 25 to 27, spend the next two days in Uganda and travel on to the Central African Republic (CAR), where the trip will end on November 30, according to a Vatican itinerary published Saturday.
The three countries have significant Catholic communities and have been troubled by civil conflicts and violence, which will increase concerns surrounding possible attacks during the visit.
In Nairobi, Francis will tour the Kangemi slum, home to some 100,000 people who live in shacks without sewerage systems, including 20,000 who belong to the local Catholic parish.
Though he regularly visited slums in Buenos Aires in his native Argentina before becoming pope, Francis’s tendency to head off unannounced from secured areas to mingle with the crowds will be a headache for his bodyguards.
Islamic rebels have staged a string of attacks in Kenya, including the April massacre at Garissa university in which 148 people — mostly Christians — died, and the 2013 assault on the Westgate shopping mall that killed 67.
The pontiff will meet with representatives of Kenya’s multi-faith community in a bid to promote inter-religious dialogue.
In Entebbe in Uganda, Francis will commemorate the canonisation by Paul VI in 1964 of the first African saints — 22 young people killed in 1878 on the orders of the local ruler because they refused to renounce their Christian faith.
And in Bangui, the CAR capital, the pontiff will tour a refugee camp before visiting the city’s central Koudoukou mosque to meet representatives of the Muslim community.
The trip will wind up with a final mass in the Barthelemy Boganda football stadium.
Here too security will be tight: the CAR descended into bloodshed after a 2013 coup against longtime leader Francois Bozize unleashed a wave of violence, pitting Christian anti-balaka militias against mostly Muslim Seleka rebels.
Security at the Vatican was stepped up in February because of a perceived heightened risk of attacks by Islamist militants, with the head of the Vatican’s Swiss Guard confirming additional precautions had been taken to ensure the safety of Pope Francis.

FG says deceased student free from pathogenic viruses

The Federal Ministry of Health has said that the student who died of suspected fresh case of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Calabar, proved negative to all pathogenic viruses known to man.
This is contained in a statement by Mr Linus Awute, Permanent Secretary in charge of the ministry in Abuja on Tuesday.
NAN reports that the ministry had earlier dispelled the speculation of fresh case of Ebola in Calabar.
“Various test conducted on the decease’s blood samples confirmed that the deceased was negative for both the Ebola Virus and Lassa Fever Virus.’’
The ministry had also directed that the Redeemers University’s African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Ede, Osun, to confirm which virus caused the infection and death.
According to him, the result shows that the decease patient is negative of pathogenic virus.
“The possibility of poisoning or intoxication with a chemical cannot be ruled out at this stage.
“The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will continue with this investigation in collaboration with National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC),’’ the statement stated.
It stated that the ministry had directed that the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit where the patient was admitted would remain closed throughout this weekend.
“The quarantined staff have been released and directed to report twice daily for temperature monitoring and follow-ups where necessary.
“A hospital sensitisation seminar facilitated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control was conducted.
“Normal clinical services have resumed at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital and the safety of this operation is guaranteed after the detailed decontamination carried out.
The ministry, the statement added, reiterate that there was no Ebola in Nigeria and the country remains Ebola free as certified by the World Health Organisation.
The permanent secretary urged the Nigerians to observe personal and environmental hygiene and keep reporting any suspected cases to the health institutions nearest to them.

Revealed: how UK targets Saudis for top contracts

 
Government departments are intensifying efforts to win lucrative public contracts in Saudi Arabia, despite a growing human rights row that led the ministry of justice to pull out of a £6m prison contract in the kingdom last week.
Documents seen by the Observer show the government identifying Saudi Arabia as a “priority market” and encouraging UK businesses to bid for contracts in health, security, defence and justice.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that ministers are bent on ever-closer ties with the world’s most notorious human rights abusers,” said Maya Foa, director of Reprieve’s death penalty team. “Ministers must urgently come clean about the true extent of our agreements with Saudi Arabia and other repressive regimes.”
The UK’s increasingly close relationship with Saudi Arabia – which observes sharia law, under which capital and corporal punishment are common – is under scrutiny because of the imminent beheading of two young Saudis. Ali al-Nimr and Dawoud al-Marhoon were both 17 when they were arrested at protests in 2012 and tortured into confessions, their lawyers say. France, Germany, the US and the UK have raised concerns about the sentences but this has not stopped Whitehall officials from quietly promoting UK interests in the kingdom – while refusing to make public the human rights concerns they have to consider before approving more controversial business deals there. Several of the most important Saudi contracts were concluded under the obscurely named Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) policy, which is meant to ensure that the UK’s security and justice activities are “consistent with a foreign policy based on British values, including human rights”. Foreign Office lawyers have gone to court to prevent the policy being made public.
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has written to David Cameron asking him to commit to an independent review of the use of the OSJA process.
“By operating under a veil of secrecy, we risk making the OSJA process appear to be little more than a rubber-stamping exercise, enabling the UK to be complicit in gross human rights abuses,” Corbyn writes.
The UK has licensed £4bn of arms sales to the Saudis since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, according to research by Campaign Against Arms Trade. Around 240 ministry of defence civil servants and military personnel work in the UK and Saudi Arabia to support the contracts, which will next year include delivery of 22 Hawk jets in a deal worth £1.6bn. And research by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows that the UK is now the kingdom’s largest arms supplier, responsible for 36% of all Saudi arms imports.
UK business want to capitalise on the fragile situation in the Middle East. A 2013 document, written by an official at UK Trade and Investment, the body charged with promoting business interests,, outlines how the region’s “global policing and security market has ballooned”. Freedom of information requests show that the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI) is courting the Saudis and that civil servants met Saudi military delegations at the UK’s Security and Policing arms fair this year and last summer at the Farnborough airshow. Civil servants were also due to meet Saudi representatives at the major arms expo in London’s Docklands last month, just as the regime upheld a ruling that al-Nimr was to be executed and his body crucified and left in public view for three days.
The UKTI is offering grants to support businesses, including those selling security equipment, to take part in overseas exhibitions aimed at specific emerging markets, notably Saudi Arabia.
However, human rights groups are asking why the UK is intent on selling arms and security equipment to a repressive regime when it has withdrawn from the prisons contract.
More than 100 people have been executed in the first six months of this year in Saudi Arabia. Andrew Smith, of the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “The Saudi regime has an appalling human rights record, yet it remains the world’s largest buyer of UK weapons. How many more people will be tortured and killed before the UK government finally says enough is enough?”
It was concerns about Nimr and Karl Andree, 74, a UK citizen sentenced to 350 lashes for possession of alcohol, that persuaded the justice secretary, Michael Gove, to pull out of the prisons contract, , sparking a row with the foreign secretary Philip iHammond, who reportedly accused him of naivety.
There are questions about other UK-Saudi deals. One is with the UK’s National College of Policing, which signed a secret memorandum of understanding to help modernise the Saudi ministry of the interior. The UK also signed a 2011 memorandum of understanding with the regime on healthcare.
“It seems ironic for the UK to be working on healthcare with the Saudi regime at the same time as selling them the means to suppress and kill their own people,” Smith said. According to human rights groups, more than 100 people have been executed in the first six months of this year in Saudi Arabia. Reprieve claims two Pakistani men convicted in the Saudi courts are due to be beheaded very soon. According to their lawyers, Muhammad Irfan and Safeer Ahmad, from Pakistan, were taken to the kingdom by men posing as “employment agents”, and were led to believe that they would find work there. The men’s lawyers say they were forced to bring drugs into the country and were arrested by Saudi police on arrival. Both were sentenced to beheading. It is believed that the sentences have now been upheld, and that they now face imminent execution.

How I killed the crocodile that ‘ate my wife’

Four months ago, Demeteriya Nabire was killed by a crocodile when she went to the lake near her home to fetch water. The animal later came back to the area but found Nabire’s husband waiting, ready to take revenge. Demeteriya Nabire was at the water’s edge with a group of women from her village – they were gathering water from Uganda’s Lake Kyoga when the crocodile grabbed her. It dragged her away and she was never seen again.
Her husband, Mubarak Batambuze, was devastated – Nabire was pregnant when she died, and he had lost not only his wife but an unborn child as well. He felt powerless. But then last month he heard the crocodile had returned. “Somebody called me and said, ‘Mubarak, I have news for you – the crocodile that took your wife is here – we are looking at it now.’”
The 50-year-old fisherman made his way to the lake with some friends. “He was a very big monster, and we tried fighting him with stones and sticks. But there was nothing we could do,” he says.
So Batambuze went to visit the local blacksmith.“I explained to him that I was fighting a beast that had snatched and killed my wife and unborn baby. I really wanted my revenge, and asked the blacksmith to make me a spear that could kill the crocodile dead. “The Blacksmith asked me for £3.20 ($5) and made the spear for me,” he says. It was a significant amount of money for Batambuze, but he was determined to kill the animal that had snatched his future.
“The crocodile ate my wife entirely. Nothing was ever seen of her again – no clothes, no part of her body that I could identify. I just didn’t know what to do – a mother and her unborn child. It was the end of my world. I was completely lost.” Armed with his new spear – specially designed with a barb on one side – the widower went on the attack.
When he got to the water the crocodile was still there, but Batambuze’s friends took fright. “Please don’t attack this beast,” they pleaded, “it’s so huge it may eat you. The spear is not enough – it won’t finish the job.” But Batambuze insisted they stay. “I failed killing it the first time around,” he told them, “I’m not bothered if I die killing this beast. I’m going to take it on with this spear, and I will make sure that it dies.”
A Ugandan Wildlife Authority ranger, Oswald Tumanya, says the crocodile was more than four metres long and weighed about 600kg. “I had so much fear in me but what helped me to succeed was the spear,” says Batambuze. He tied a rope to the end of the weapon so that once the tip was embedded in the crocodile, he could pull it out at an angle and the barb would cut into more of the animal’s flesh.
“I put the spear into the crocodile’s side, and while my friends were helping to throw stones at the beast’s back, it tried getting its mouth up to attack me again. “It turned violent, and then there was so much fear in the place. But I was so determined, and I wasn’t afraid of dying. I just wanted it dead, so I put the spear in its side and I pulled the rope. That got the crocodile into trouble.”
It took an hour and a half for Batambuze and his friends, fighting and retreating, exchanging attacks with the enraged animal, before the crocodile was finally dead. Exhausted, they made their way back to their village. “There was so much shock. What really surprised everybody was how big the beast was. It wasn’t an ordinary crocodile. It was so big. And people called me and my friends heroes,” he says.
The dead animal was taken to Makarere University in Kampala, where it was examined by a vet, Wilfred Emneku. He says a tibia bone was found inside the crocodile’s stomach, but while he believes it’s human he can’t be sure. A crocodile expert at Charles Darwin University in Australia, Adam Britton, says he would be very surprised if any remains inside the animal’s stomach were those of Demeteriya Nabire.
“After 12 weeks… under normal conditions, it would be highly improbable for bones from the same meal to remain in the stomach,” he says. So while Batambuze’s celebrity status endures in his village, it is unlikely that he will ever have a grave to mourn at. “Within myself I’m a very depressed man because I lost a wife and an unborn child,” he explains.
“But the locals keep on saying, ‘Thank you for killing the beast, that’s where we fetch water and we’re sure it would have taken somebody else. Thank you so much, you did a great job.’” “So I’m a local hero – people keep on thanking me.”

Chelsea not going to be relegated – Mourinho

Jose Mourinho hopes Diego Costa’s return from suspension will provide troubled champions Chelsea with the spark to ignite their spluttering campaign.
Feted as kings of the Premier League in May, just five months later the Blues are languishing in 16th place following a 3-1 home defeat against Southampton.
That loss came amid reports of a dressing room mutiny against the Chelsea boss.
And, despite public backing from Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, Mourinho cut an agitated figure this week when he launched a scathing attack on the Football Association after he was fined and given a suspended one-match stadium ban following his criticism of the officials in the Southampton match.
With tensions running high at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho is relieved to welcome back Costa after a three-match ban and said the Spain striker’s return had lifted morale ahead of Aston Villa’s visit on Saturday.
“On Friday we had a good conversation. We laughed a lot because Diego Costa found the reasons for the bad results,” Mourinho said.
“I cannot tell you but he gave us the solution to go back to victories.
“We cannot run away from the reality of the table in the Premier League.
“The numbers are very cruel and we need points, but obviously we know we’re not going to be relegated.”
Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp has challenged Liverpool’s under-performing stars to rediscover their swagger when the new Reds boss gets his first taste of the Premier League against Tottenham.
All eyes will be on Klopp’s eagerly anticipated debut at White Hart Lane following the highly-regarded German’s recent appointment as successor to the sacked Brendan Rodgers.
The charismatic 48-year-old’s impressive track record at Borussia Dortmund has established him as one of Europe’s top coaches and his arrival has rekindled enthusiasm among Liverpool fans who had grown disillusioned with Rodgers’ trophyless reign.
But, with Liverpool slumping to 10th place after just one win in their last nine matches in all competitions, Klopp is well aware he faces a major rebuilding job before he can dream of emulating legendary Anfield managers like Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Kenny Dalglish.
“I have met two kinds of people in the last week: most of them say ‘We’ll win the league’ and the other guys look at me like ‘What have you done? Why are you here?’,” Klopp said.
“Both are not right in this moment. It is not interesting what people think about this.”
– Fear of failure –
While Klopp is cautious about revealing his own ambitions, he has already identified one key problem that needs to be solved if Liverpool are to get back on track quickly.
He believes the players were hamstrung by a fear of failure as the pressure mounted on Rodgers and he wants them to forget about past mistakes.
“Some things you can change instantly: mentality, readiness,” Klopp said.
“I want to see more bravery, more fun in their eyes. I want to see that they like what they do.”
While Klopp will steal most of the headlines this weekend, new Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce returns to the Premier League facing arguably the toughest challenge of his career.
The second bottom Black Cats turned to Allardyce after Dick Advocaat quit, making him the first man to take charge of bitter north-east rivals Newcastle and Sunderland.
Allardyce, who left West Ham at the end of last season, has a well-earned reputation for helping clubs punch above their weight.
But Sunderland have failed to win any of their first eight matches and defeat in Allardyce’s debut at struggling West Bromwich Albion would be a hammer blow.
“It’s a big challenge. Even at this early stage of the season, it’s clear that we are in trouble,” Allardyce said.
“It could take the vast majority of our 30 matches to get safe.”
Leaders Manchester City host Bournemouth bolstered by captain Vincent Kompany’s return after a five-game injury absence, but Manuel Pellegrini’s side will be without star striker Sergio Aguero and key midfielder David Silva after both suffered knocks on international duty.
Second placed Arsenal will face Watford for the first time in nine years when they travel to Vicarage Road, while third placed Manchester United are at Everton.
Fixtures (1400GMT unless stated)
Saturday
Chelsea v Aston Villa, Crystal Palace v West Ham, Everton v Manchester United, Manchester City v Bournemouth, Southampton v Leicester, Tottenham v Liverpool (1145GMT), Watford v Arsenal (1630GMT), West Brom v Sunderland
Sunday
Newcastle v Norwich (1500GMT)
Monday
Swansea v Stoke (2000GMT)
smg/gnf