NEWSBRIEFS

Photo: Kazakh President Nazarbayev. Credit: KazInform

Kazakh President Lauds China's Silk Road Initiative

By KazInform

ASTANA (IDN) – China's plans to establish the Silk Road Economic Belt, also known as the One Belt and One Road Initiative, are "great", according to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, reports Kazinform international news agency.

In an interview aired by China's CCTV-13 channel, Nazarbayev stressed the importance of the state visit to Kazakhstan by Xi Jinping in 2013. It was then that the Chinese leader, in a speech at the Nazarbayev University, for the first time announced the global initiative to create the Silk Road Economic Belt.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; NEWSBRIEFS; 18 February 2018

Photo: Airborne Launch Control System. Credit: www.afgsc.af.mil/

Activists Call on U.S. to Respect the Olympic Truce

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – As the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games kicked off on February 9, over 100 activists from around the United States sent an open letter to Defence Secretary James Mattis, calling on him to respect the Olympic Truce by postponing provocative nuclear-capable missile tests.

Dozens of organizations around the country worked closely together to send the letter, Sandy Jones, Director of Communications at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara in California said.

The letter states, "Regardless of advance planning of such tests, it is essential to global security that the United States be flexible and respect worthwhile initiatives for peace such as the Olympic Truce."

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; NEWSBRIEFS; 09 February 2018

Drought Forces Ghana To Ration Water Supply

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – The state-owned Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL) has announced that due to severe dry winter winds (called ‘harmattan’) and the drying up of rivers, water deliveries will be rationed over the coming months while the country awaits the rain.

“We are sorry to inform the consuming public that the situation has led to intermittent water supply in most cities and towns in the country,” said Stanley Martey, communications director of the national company. The rate of evaporation of water bodies nationwide has become alarming and there will be consequences for some communities, he said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 February 2018

South African War on Corruption Moves into High Gear

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) – A shakeup in the African National Congress has boosted hopes that new party officials will make a clean sweep of the backroom dealings that have made millionaires out of a small South African elite and punished the majority with high unemployment and a national credit rating downgraded to “junk status.”

Business tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa, newly elected president of the African National Congress, has raised hopes that he will stamp out corruption, expedite job creation, improve the lacklustre economy and speed up the transfer of land to black people.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 02 January 2018

Liberian Soccer Icon Plans Sweeping Changes as New President

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – George Weah, Liberia’s president-elect, declared the country open to investment and pledged to tackle entrenched corruption, in his first speech to the nation since decisively winning an election on December 30, 2017.

Speaking at a press conference at his party headquarters, Weah thanked his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, for enabling Liberia's first democratic transition in over 70 years but said he was determined to usher in sweeping changes.

Weah, 51, faces sky-high expectations from young supporters who are desperate for jobs and better wages.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 02 January 2018

Photo: Professor Calestous Juma. Credit: The Breakthrough Institute

Controversial Kenyan Advocate of GM Seeds Dies in Boston

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) –The Kenyan director of the Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard University, Professor Calestous Juma, passed away in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 15, at the age of 64.

Juma served as Professor of the Practice of International Development, and was affiliated with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Center for International Development, and the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government.

: Ramesh Jaura; NEWSBRIEFS; 19 December 2017

Photo: Patrice Nganang at the Paris Book Fair, by Georges Seguin CC BY-SA 3.0

Writers Protest the Arrest of New York Professor in Cameroon

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The African Literature Association and other professional associations of writers and scholars are demanding the release of a Cameroonian-American writer and university professor, detained on December 6 without explanation at the airport in Douala, Cameroon.

Patrice Nganang, who teaches at Stony Brook University's cultural studies and comparative literature department in New York, was reported missing from a connecting flight to Zimbabwe where he was expected to meet up with his family.

The previous day he had published an article on the French website Jeune Afrique that was critical of the Cameroonian government’s handling of a series of strikes by the minority English-speaking population which is seeking equal rights with the majority French-speakers.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 19 December 2017

Photo: Winner of the new student category, Moussa Ngom attending CESTI, Senegal. Photo: Hyppolite Valdez Onanina

African Fact Checkers Expose ‘Fake News’ And Win Prizes

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Striking a blow against fake news, reporters from Kenya, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Cameroon scooped the top prizes this year in a competition organized by Africa Check, the leading fact-check organization on the continent.

Founded by the French news service AFP in partnership with the journalism department of the University of the Witwatersrand, Africa Check holds public figures accountable by sorting fact from fiction.

As well as producing its own reports, the website of Africa Check provides tips and advice on how to fact-check. It also offers a library of databases and fact-checking tools.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 19 December 2017

Photo: Presentation of the 17.2 million Euro cheque on December 5 to fund initiatives to combat wildlife killing and trafficking in Africa. Credit: CMS.

ACP Greets EU-UN Action To Combat Wildlife Trafficking

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States has welcomed the European Union's decision to launch a coordinated action jointly with the United Nations to counter the illegal killing and trafficking of wildlife in Southern and Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean.

As part of a 30 million Euro (35.3 million U.S. dollars) intervention, the European Union (EU) has signed a 17.2 million Euro (20.35 million U.S. dollars) agreement with three United Nations (UN) agencies – CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and CMS, the Convention on Migratory Species.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 12 December 2017

Photo: A new road being constructed in Bamyan in 2013. Credit: UNAMA

Religious Scholars Discuss Peace-building in Afghanistan

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Religious leaders came together in support of efforts to build a culture of tolerance and non-violence in Afghanistan at an event organized by the Bamyan regional office of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

More than 30 scholars, including female scholars from different religious institutions attended the event to discuss and review their role in building a peaceful society, UNAMA reported on November 20, 2017.

"Religion is a key factor in peace-building," said Ibrahim Khalili, a scholar, stressing that religious leaders, by virtue of their standing in communities, can be a positive force for building peace among local communities.