Category: Foreign News

Trump Fires Secretary Of State, Rex Tillerson

Emporium Reporters

US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo. Thanking Mr Tillerson for his service on Twitter, Mr Trump said the new state secretary would do “a fantastic job”. Mr Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the job just over a year ago. BBC reports that the president also nominated Gina Haspel to become the first woman director of the CIA. The Department of State said Mr Tillerson had not spoken to the…

UN Secretary Announces Evacuation Aid Worker In Troubled Northeast Nigeria

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United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the evacuation of all humanitarian personnel and the temporary suspension of all humanitarian deliveries in Rann town, in Borno State, Northeast Nigeria. “All humanitarian personnel have been evacuated from Rann, and all humanitarian deliveries in the area have been temporarily suspended”. The body called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to apprehend and prosecute those who carried out the attack on Rann town. He condemned the killing of three aid workers in Rann, following an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on…

Congo’s Kabila Replaces Interior Minister Amid Declining Security

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President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo has appointed the leader his political party as interior minister on Tuesday to oversee security in the face of rising militia violence and unrest over delayed elections. Henri Sakanyi, secretary-general of Kabila’s People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), replaces Emmanuel Shadari, another senior PPRD official, who had served in the post since December 2016. The reason for the change, announced in a communique read on national television, was not immediately clear. Shadari is considered a staunch Kabila loyalist and has…

Facebook loses privacy case in Belgium, faces $125m fine

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A Belgian court on Friday threatened Facebook with a fine of up to 100 million euros (125 million dollars ) if it continued to break privacy laws by tracking people on third-party websites. In a case brought by Belgium’s privacy watchdog, the court also ruled that Facebook had to delete all data it had gathered illegally on Belgian citizens, including people who were not Facebook users themselves. Facebook, which would be fined 250,000 euros a day or up to 100 million euros if it did not comply with the court’s…

United States Charges 13 Russians With Interfering In 2016 Elections

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Robert Mueller, United States special counsel, announced on Friday that he has criminally charged 13 Russians and three Russian entities for interfering in the 2016 US election to help Donald Trump. In a 37-page indictment by the federal grand jury in Washington DC, it is alleged that the Russians’ operations “included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” his Democratic opponent. The Russian operation following Trump’s victory promoted allegations of voter fraud by the Democratic party, which coincidentally around that time, Trump claimed…

Zimbabwe Opposition Leader, Morgan Tsvangirai Dies

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Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai died on Wednesday in South Africa after a long battle with cancer, the vice president of his Movement for Democratic Change party said. “I can confirm that he died this evening. The family communicated this to me,” Elias Mudzuri told Reuters. Tsvangirai, 65, was the MDC candidate in the controversial the 2002 presidential, losing to Mugabe. He later contested the first round of the 2008 presidential election as the MDC-T candidate, taking 47.8 per cent of the vote according to official results, placing him ahead…

Jacob Zuma Resigns, Thanks South Africans, ANC

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The president of South of Africa, Jacob Zuma, has resigned after days of challenging the orders from the ruling African National Congress to leave office. The former anti-apartheid activist, and has been South Africa’s president since 2009, was due to leave power next year. Initially, Zuma inspired hope in millions of South Africans, especially hope amongst the poor. But his time in office was filled with numerous accusations of misconduct. Soon he would come to symbolize the corruption in South Afric. In a televised address to the nation late on…

President Zuma Meets ANC Top 6 `over His Future’

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South African President, Jacob Zuma, will meet the top six officials of the ruling party over his future this weekend, the state broadcaster said on Thursday. Scandal-plagued Zuma has faced calls from within the African National Congress (ANC) to step down since deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa succeeded him as leader of the party in December. Ramaphosa would then be his natural successor. “The meeting is expected to centre around Zuma’s future as head of state,” the South African Broadcasting Corporation posted on its official news feed. The ANC has previously…

SOUTH AFRICA KILLINGS: Police Arrest, Arraign Culprits

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The two South African policemen responsible for the killing and violent attack on Nigerians in Durban and other areas have been apprehended and arraigned in South African Court on Monday January 22. This was confirmed by the Nigeria Consulate in South Africa in a statement sent to Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora. The Consulate said Consular officers from the Nigerian Consulate-General in Johannesburg and the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria were in Durban to witness the court proceeding. The accused, were…

Five things George Weah promised Liberians

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Former football star George Weah promised to tackle Liberia’s economic and social problems as he was sworn in on Monday in the first democratic transfer of power for more than 70 years. Here are five things he has pledged to do since his election: – Tackle corruption – Failing to tackle endemic corruption among public officials was a key criticism of the outgoing administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Weah said in his inaugural speech that voters had specifically tasked him with rooting out graft. “I believe the overwhelming mandate…