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By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — When Chris Hyland caught the coronavirus, his ordeal went beyond being sick and exhausted — he couldn't help his business partners manage the virus's impact on their company just as the outbreak was sweeping across the world. Hyland and his wife and children became ill in early March. Customers were cutting back orders at his employee management software business, The Happiness Index. Revenue was plunging and the London-based company was forced to furlough 12 of 20 staffers. Hyland tried to handle the crisis while also taking care of himself […]
The post For business owners with COVID, virus is just one struggle appeared first on Black News Channel.
Nationwide protests have taken place since October 7 despite the disbanding of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
The demonstrators have been accused of attacking police stations and personnel.
The rallies which are mostly attended by young people have become avenues to vent against corruption and unemployment.
Rights groups say at least 15 people have been killed the demonstrations began in early October.
Nigerians protesting against police brutality stayed on the streets in Lagos on Wednesday, breaking the government curfew following a night of chaotic violence in which demonstrators were fired upon, sparking global outrage.
Shots were fired Wednesday as young demonstrators set up barricades by the Lekki toll plaza in Lagos, where protesters had been fired upon Tuesday night, causing numerous injuries although officials said no deaths.
One protester told The Associated Press that his brother was shot and killed in the previous day's demonstrations and that he himself had been hurt in the leg.
Gunfire could be heard across Lagos, Nigeria's largest city of 14 million, including on the highway to the airport, at a major bus station, outside the offices of a television station and at the Lekki tollgates. Smoke could be seen billowing from several points in central Lagos.
Demonstrations and gunfire were also reported in several other Nigerian cities, including the capital city, Abuja.
The nationwide #EndSARS protests against police brutality have rocked Nigeria for more than two weeks. They started after a video circulated of a man being beaten, apparently by officers of the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, known as SARS.
In response to the protests, the government announced it would disband the SARS unit, which Amnesty International says has been responsible for many cases of torture and killings.
The demonstrators' demands have widened to include calls for accountable government, respect for human rights and an end to corruption in Africa's most populous nation of 196 million.
Despite massive oil wealth and one of Africa's largest economies, the bulk of Nigeria's 200 million people have high levels of poverty and lack of basic services, as a result of rampant corruption, charge rights groups.
A GROUP of Zambian women and children filed a suit against Anglo American Plc in South Africa, alleging the mining company caused widespread lead poisoning from a mine it owned until 1974 in the northern city of Kabwe. The case, which is demanding compensation and a clean-up of the area, was filed in a Johannesburg court on Wednesday by 13 plaintiffs on behalf of an estimated 100 000 people, according to law firms Leigh Day and Mbuyisa Moleele. The firms plan to apply for a class action suit. Anglo American will “defend its position,” the company said. “Generations of children have been poisoned by the operations of the Kabwe mine, originally known as Broken Hill, which caused widespread contamination of the soil, dust, water and vegetation,” the firms said in a statement. “The main sources of this poisonous lead were from the smelter, ore processing and tailings dumps.” The group lawsuit is the latest over its decades of mining in southern Africa. In 2018, Anglo and five other companies paid about US$390 million to settle a class action by former gold miners suffering from the respiratory disease silicosis. “Once the claim is received, the company will review the claims made by the firm and will take all necessary steps to vigorously defend its position,” Anglo said in an emailed response to questions, adding it was never the majority owner of the Kabwe mine. Anglo held an interest in the mine, at one stage the world’s biggest lead operation, from 1925 to 1974, when it was nationalised by the government. While the operation about 100km north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka, was eventually shut in 1994, output during Anglo’s ownership accounted for about two-thirds of the lead that now contaminates the area, the law firms said. Brain damage “Substantial emissions of lead into the local environment were due to deficiencies in the design and systems of operation and control of lead, which Anglo American South Africa failed to ensure were rectified,” they said. “Anglo American South Africa failed to ensure the clean-up of the communities’ contaminated land.” Lead poisoning can cause health problems ranging from learning difficulties to infertility, brain damage and, in some cases, death. In a 2019 report, Human Rights Watch said that a third of the population of Kabwe, or more than 76,000 people, live in lead-contaminated areas. The lawsuit was filed in South Africa because at the time of the mine’s operation Anglo was headquartered in Johannesburg. The company is now based in London. — Bloomberg
By MIKE SCHNEIDER The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration can end census field operations early, in a blow to efforts to make sure minorities and hard-to-enumerate communities are properly counted in the crucial once-a-decade tally. The decision was not a total loss for plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision […]
Protests in Sudan have turned deadly after one person was reportedly killed and a dozen others were wounded, according to a group of doctors linked to the movement that led to the downfall of President Omar al-Bashir.
The demonstrations on Wednesday in the cities of Kharthoum and Omdurman are over the country's worsening economic situation. Protesters are also demanding justice for the hundreds killed during the 2019 uprising, which led to Bashir being toppled.
'We demanded freedom, peace and justice'
Eyewitnesses said police fired teargas to disperse the small gatherings of about 100 protesters.
\"There has not yet been any sentencing for the martyrs,\" said one protester.
\"We demanded freedom, peace and justice and neither achieve peace, neither freedom nor justice.\"
Sudan has embarked on a rocky three-year transition since then under a joint civilian-military administration but has struggled with severe economic woes and skyrocketing consumer prices.
High inflation and a shortage of hard currency mean people are finding it difficult to even buy the basics. Long queues outside grocery stores have also become the norm as have power cuts that can last up to six hours.
Authorities have vowed to rebuild the economy and to bring to justice those responsible for killing protesters.
More than 250 people were killed during the anti-Bashir protests and the ensuing unrest, according to doctors linked to the protest movement.
The transitional authorities have been pushing to end the country's isolation and to rebuild its economy.
On Monday, President Donald Trump declared his readiness to remove post-Bashir Sudan from a US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, a move Khartoum hailed as a vital step towards securing debt relief and spurring economic recovery.
BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY Special to the Birmingham Times “You Had Me at Hello’’ highlights married couples and the love that binds them. If you would like to be considered for a future “Hello’’ column, or know someone, please send nominations to Erica Wright ewright@birminghamtimes.com. Include the couple’s name, contact number(s) and what makes their love […]
