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Military sales by the arms industry’s 25 largest companies totaled US$ 361 billion in 2019, 8.5 per cent more than in 2018, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The top five positions are occupied by US defence giants. Together with seven other US companies, they represent 61 per cent of global sales.
After the USA, China accounted for the second largest share of 2019 arms sales by the top 25 arms companies, at 16 percent. The six West European companies together accounted for 18 percent.
The two Russian companies in the ranking accounted for 3.9 percent.
For the first time, a Middle East company has become a top arms supplier in the world.
Edge, based in the United Arab Emirates, occupies the 22nd position, and accounts for 1.3 percent of total arms sales of the top 25 firms.
For senior SIPRI researcher Pieter Wezeman, the high demand for weapons from local governments and the will of the countries in Middle East to become independent from foreign manufacturers are favouring the growth of Middle Eastern companies.
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
POLICE in Gweru have since Monday arrested at least 100 pirate kombi drivers and impounded their vehicles for operating illegally. BY STEPHEN CHADENGA The arrests were made as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 which saw the countrywide banning in March of private commuter omnibuses not registered under Zupco. Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko confirmed the development, saying the kombis were being handed over to the Vehicle Inspection Department. “We have since impounded over 100 private kombis for operating illegally in the city,” Goko said. “It is part of our routine exercise to ensure pirate public transport operators are brought to book.” Yesterday, pirate kombis ferrying commuters from western suburbs were dropping passengers a few kilometres outside the central business district to avoid arrest at various police roadblocks. Passengers had to walk the remaining distances to town. Recently, government reiterated that private kombis were banned from carrying passengers unless they registered with Zupco. But following the relaxation of lockdown rules, the number of private kombis operating illegally have increased in most towns and cities. lFollow Stephen on Twitter @jagganox78
President-elect Joe Biden hasn’t even taken office yet but he's hiring. Read More: Lies that Biden ‘lost’ Penn. take hold... View Article
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COVID-19 was the cause of canceling a slew of events this year but not the Super Bowl halftime show. The... View Article
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Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara met with a main opposition rival on Wednesday and promised to pursue talks aimed at calming a standoff over the October 31 election, which has ignited clashes killing scores of people.
Ouattara met with opposition candidate and former president Henri Konan Bedie in Abidjan.
The election handed Ouaterra a third term, which some say violates a two-term constitutional limit.
\"It was a first meeting... to break the ice and restore trust,\" said Ouattara.
\" And we agreed to meet again very soon to continue this dialogue, which has got off to a good start and mutual trust is restored.\"
Both Ouattara, 78, a nd Bedie said the meeting was an important first step but did not indicate that they had made any concessions.
Bedie, 86, said: “In the days and weeks ahead, we will call each other and meet so that the country becomes what it was before.”
Ouattara was declared victor of the election with more than 94 percent of the vote, which was boycotted by the main opposition.
Up to 85 people have been killed in the clashes that ensued after Ouattara decided to run for a third term.
More than 8,000 people have fled the country to seek refuge in neighbouring states, fearing the violence last seen after the 2010 election, which killed more than 3,000 people, could reignite.
After months of closure, schools have reopened Thursday in Senegal.
Unicef had deplored in early October that only one country in three from West and Central Africa has managed to reopen its schools for the start of the school year 2020-2021 on schedule.
Most of the students sitting Thursday in groups under the courtyard of an elementary school in Mbao, a suburb of Dakar, were not wearing masks. On the contrary, in a high school in Yoff, a working class neighborhood of the capital, most were wearing masks.
But these same students passed through the doors of the school without any provision to keep them at a distance from each other.
Four million students, from primary to secondary school, were expected to return to classes, but a number of them delayed their return, a common practice even outside of a pandemic.
Schools were closed in March after the first case of Covid-19 in the country. Only 500,000 students in examination classes had returned to school by June.
Since then, the pandemic appears to have been contained at low levels. Senegal reported 15,744 cases and 326 deaths.
Economic activity, which has been severely affected, is slowly resuming its course. But there is also a slackening of daily vigilance.
\"We have defined a health protocol with the Ministry of Health for the compulsory wearing of masks - except in preschool - hand washing, physical distancing,\" Ministry of Education spokesman Mohamed Moustapha Diagne said.
The authorities also assured that masks and gel would be transported for schools to remote localities.
\"We have not yet received a supply of masks and hydro-alcoholic gel,\" an official of the school in Mbao said anonymously.
\"Until last night, some schools in inland localities had not received their equipment in masks and gel,\" said a teacher union official, Abdoulaye Ndoye.
The start of the school year is also undermined by a financial dispute between private schools, which accommodate nearly a third of students, and parents.
Private schools demanded that parents pay for two to three months of schooling between April and June. Some parents reported in the press that they did not owe anything because classes were closed.
\"We recommend discussion between the schools and the families,\" said the ministry spokesman, assuring that the ministry had \"no legal basis to intervene\".
\"Only the state can settle this issue. It must have the political courage to do so,\" replied trade unionist Ndoye.
THE trial of two Beitbridge policemen who allegedly assaulted citizens under the guise of monitoring compliance to the COVID-19 lockdown regulations failed to kick off because their lawyer was absent. BY REX MPHISA Carrotnos Wafawanaka and Hardlife Shoko are accused of assaulting Tafadzwa Mukutiri who sustained serious head injuries on April 17 this year. Resident magistrate Toyindepi Zhou acknowledged receipt of Wafawanaka and Shoko’s Bulawayo lawyer Tatenda Razemba’s letter to the court indicating that he had a commitment at the High Court. “The State has indicated it is ready for trial, but we will note that it is your constitutional right to access legal representation of your choice. I have a letter from your lawyer stating he is committed at the High Court,” Zhou said. Prosecutor Tsitsi Mutukwa suggested that since it was the defence that was not ready, it should propose a date suitable for trial and next Tuesday was agreed upon. Allegations against the two are that they assaulted Mukutiri while he was in handcuffs, accusing him of breaking COVID-19 regulations. Mukutiri, who was in the company of Cyprian Badze and Ronald Kapfunde, was allegedly bashed on the head and sustained deep cuts for which he sought medical attention. The two cops, however, allegedly destroyed his medical affidavit to conceal the crime and ordered Mukutiri to pay a fine. Zhou has already nullified the fine and ordered the police to refund him. Wafawanaka, Shoko and other policemen at Beitbridge Urban face another charge of beating up civilians during arrest while their colleague, Constable Utete from the Canine Unit, faces a charge of setting his dog on non-violent citizens. Up to 20 people were bitten by dogs and treated at Beitbridge District Hospital during the lockdown period. Follow us on Twitter @NewsDayZimbabwe
BY RICHARD MUPONDE HARARE, renamed from the colonial Salisbury, in the early days of independence, was widely referred to as the Sunshine City owing to its squeaky-clean streets and orderly, smart and clean residential suburbs. Harare’s cleanliness and orderliness echoed throughout Sadc, and undoubtedly contributed to “The Jewel of Africa” moniker accorded the country by statesmen like Tanzania’s former President, the late Julius Mwalimu Nyerere. Sadly, the city has over the decades deteriorated to some stinky hellhole that nobody can be proud to be associated with. Old timers get nolstalgic about the old Harare when today they come across huge mounds of garbage at street corners, minefields of potholes, total absence of street lighting and a literal invasion of pavements by poverty stricken vegetable and other vendors. In the past the city fathers used to collect garbage every week which was a well-planned and monitored programme of servicing the suburbs where refuse trucks had a timetable for collecting garbage. However, things have gone out of hand as garbage heaps grow at every street corner in the central business district. Litter bugs go scot-free with no one to enforce by-laws against littering resulting in a health time bomb. The influx of vendors in the central business district (CBD) has also exacerbated the problem as they dump garbage anywhere near their operating sites without care or worry. Meanwhile council does not collect its movable bins placed at strategic points in the city making Harare an eyesore. During the lockdown period council workers took advantage of the absence of people in the CBD and cleaned it up, but that has all come to naught as the situation has returned to original dirty settings. A resident of Kuwadzana, Admire Mutengiwa, said the city council was letting residents down by not collecting garbage when every month it billed them for a once a week refuse collection. “The way the council is operating is short-changing ratepayers. I think it is wise for them not to collect our money if they can’t collect the garbage. Heaps of garbage are piling on every open space in this suburb and around the whole city. Organisations such as Environment Management Agency (EMA) should fine the council heavily because it is the one driving residents to dump garbage everywhere,” he said. Mutengiwa’s sentiments were echoed by Kelvin Pamire, from the same suburb, who said litter bugs should be arrested and the city council fined for polluting the city with uncollected garbage. “Law enforcement should take its course and those littering the environment should be brought to book. Council shouldn’t be spared because it is the driving force behind all this mess,” Pamire said. Precious Shumba, director for Harare Residents Trust (HRT), said refuse collection was virtually non-existent in Harare. “Uncollected garbage continues to pile in open spaces, at shopping centres, street corners in other residential places and the Avenues area. Residents are charged for once a week refuse collection on their monthly bi
Amelia Ashley Ward has had Kamala Harris’ back since their early days in San Francisco, when Ward was running a Black community newspaper and Harris was a little-known Black woman running for district attorney. Ward endorsed her then — and reported on Harris’ riding a cable car through the streets of the city to drum […]
Dear Editor,
As expected, there were heralds accentuating positives, and the dirty tricksters, for whom the PPP government could do no right.
The article A hundred days of heaven or pending hell appeared first on Stabroek News.
A suspected financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Felicien Kabuga, made his first appearance at a UN court in The Hague on Wednesday after decades on the run.
Felicien Kabuga's a suspected financier of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, which saw 800,000 people murdered, according to the UN.
Kabuga, now in his 80s, is accused of crimes against humanity including genocide.
UN prosecutors also accuse Kabuga of helping create a Hutu militia group and urging the killing of Tutsis through his media company.
He is also accused of helping to buy machetes in 1993 that were distributed to genocidal groups.
He denies the charges.
He is \"very tired,\" said his lawyer, Emmanuel Altit.
Kabuga, one of Rwanda's richest men was first indicted by the now-closed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) two decades ago.
On the run
But he was not arrested until this year in May, near Paris.
He was transferred from France to The Hague in October.
The initial hearing before a pre-trial judge took place at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which has taken on cases left over from the ICTR.
Kabuga spent years on the run using a succession of false passports, with investigators saying that he had been helped by a network of former Rwandan allies to evade justice.
His lawyers argue he should be tried in France but France's top court ruled he should be moved to UN custody.
Kabuga was initially to be transferred to the UN court's facility in Arusha, Tanzania, which took over the ICTR's duties when it formally closed in 2015.
But a judge ruled he should first be taken to The Hague for a medical examination, and it was not immediately known when or if Kabuga might be transferred to Arusha.
