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WESTERN BUREAU: The Jamaica Independent Schools Association (JISA) is appealing to the Government to provide direct financial support to private-school students whose parents’ earning power has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to...
Abiy's government and the regional one run by the Tigray People's Liberation Front each consider the other illegitimate.
\t There was no immediate word from the three AU envoys, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe. AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo did not say whether they can meet with TPLF leaders, something Abiy's office has rejected.
\"``Not possible,'' senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein said in a message to the AP. ``\"Above all, TPLF leadership is still at large.'' He called reports that the TPLF had appointed an envoy to discuss an immediate cease-fire with the international community ``masquerading.''
\t Fighting reportedly remained well outside the Tigray capital of Mekele, a densely populated city of a half-million people who have been warned by the Ethiopian government that they will be shown ``no mercy'' if they don't distance themselves from the region's leaders.
\t Tigray has been almost entirely cut off from the outside world since Nov. 4, when Abiy announced a military offensive in response to a TPLF attack on a federal army base.
That makes it difficult to verify claims about the fighting, but humanitarians have said at least hundreds of people have been killed.
\t The fighting threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the linchpin of the strategic Horn of Africa.
\t With transport links cut, food and other supplies are running out in Tigray, home to 6 million people, and the United Nations has asked for immediate and unimpeded access for aid.
AP
[This Day] Stakeholders in the public and private sectors across sub-Saharan Africa have come together to launch the Coalition of Blood for Africa (CoBA) on a virtual platform.
With COVID-19 upending lives, immigrants are once again forming new versions of themselves and their communities out of necessity. In many ways, immigrants say these approaches and mindset changes will likely endure long after the pandemic.
By choosing “I agree” below, you agree that NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites to enhance your viewing,…
Opinion - Message from Dr. Julitta Onabanjo, UNFPA Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that images showing Paris police beating up a Black music producer were shameful for France, and that government would have to find a way to restore public confidence in the force.
LONDON (Reuters) - Suspected North Korean hackers have tried to break into the systems of British drugmaker AstraZeneca in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as the company races to deploy its vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. The hackers posed as recruiters on networking site LinkedIn and WhatsApp to approach AstraZeneca staff with fake job offers, the sources said. They then sent documents purporting to be job descriptions that were laced with malicious code designed to gain access to a victim’s computer. The hacking attempts targeted a “broad set of people” including staff working on COVID-19 research, said one of the sources, but are not thought to have been successful. The North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment. Pyongyang has previously denied carrying out cyberattacks. It has no direct line of contact for foreign media. AstraZeneca, which has emerged as one of the top three COVID-19 vaccine developers, declined to comment.r The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public information, said the tools and techniques used in the attacks showed they were part of an ongoing hacking campaign that U.S. officials and cybersecurity researchers have attributed to North Korea. The campaign has previously focused on defence companies and media organisations but pivoted to COVID-related targets in recent weeks, according to three people who have investigated the attacks. Cyberattacks against health bodies, vaccine scientists and drugmakers have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic as state-backed and criminal hacking groups scramble to obtain the latest research and information about the outbreak. Western officials say any stolen information could be sold for profit, used to extort the victims, or give foreign governments a valuable strategic advantage as they fight to contain a disease that has killed 1.4 million people worldwide. Microsoft said this month it had seen two North Korean hacking groups target vaccine developers in multiple countries, including by “sending messages with fabricated job descriptions.” Microsoft did not name any of the targeted organisations. South Korean lawmakers said on Friday that the country’s intelligence agency had foiled some of those attempts. Reuters has previously reported that hackers from Iran, China and Russia have attempted to break into leading drugmakers and even the World Health Organisation this year. Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all denied the allegations. Some of the accounts used in the attacks on AstraZeneca were registered to Russian email addresses, one of the sources said, in a possible attempt to mislead investigators. North Korea has been blamed by U.S. prosecutors for some of the world’s most audacious and damaging cyberattacks, including the hack and leak of emails from Sony Pictures in 2014, the 2016 theft of $81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh, and unleashing the Wannacry ransomware virus in 2017. Pyongyang has described the allegations as part
[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Many transgender women employed in hospitality and as sex workers have struggled during the coronavirus pandemic
Information Minister Melford Nicholson on Thursday announced that Michael Browne, 44, who resigned as Education Minister on Wednesday, has been arrested and charged.
It is no coincidence that many of the major cities where President Donald Trump's campaign is making baseless claims of widespread voter fraud have large African-American communities, including Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Black voters, for the most part, favored President-elect Joe...
The UAE Has Supposedly Halted Travel Visas
In light of an as yet unconfirmed and unexplained alleged ban on foreign visitors by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reports are coming out of several travel agencies located in countries on the African continent and the Middle East who claim that the issuing of new visas to citizens on their soil has been momentarily stopped.
The news — or speculation, comes amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the UAE's normalisation deal with Israel.
According to a document which surfaced this week and was leaked this week from Dubai’s state-owned airport free zone, restrictions against a range of nationalities have been declared and it appears that the supposed ban is confusingly aimed at 11 Muslim majority nations - in addition to Kenya and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, citing an order from the country’s immigration authorities, the note to companies operating in Dubai’s airport free zone announced a pause in issuing all new employment, long and short-term visit visas “until further notice” from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Tunisia.
No Official Response From UAE Authorities
No reason has been offered and Emirati authorities are yet to acknowledge the suspension of issuing travel visas.
When asked by The Associated Press (AP) about the order, the country's immigration department said it’s “not aware of any formal list of nationalities requiring visa suspension.” Dubai’s airport free zone confirmed the veracity of the document to the AP and said it was waiting for further clarification from officials.
Meanwhile, across the region, agencies and authorities say their citizens are forbidden from entering the UAE.
Rumours and Speculations
The reports have reached social media where network feeds and news outlets worldwide with many foreigners wondering about the news concerning the country where expat workers and visitors outnumber locals nearly nine to one.
In Kenya, locals are speculating over the supposed travel-ban and some people assume that the East African nation has made it onto the list over an incident involving forged certificates of “negative” coronavirus test results that were used in an attempt to travel to the region and resulted in 21 arrests on Thursday.
People Want Answers
On a more official level, four travel agencies in Nairobi, the capital city, stated that they were seeking clarification from Emirati authorities after dozens of tourist visas were rejected.
According to one of the aforementioned agencies, Travel Shore Africa, 40 of its clients travelling to for Dubai had been blocked from boarding their flights at the last-minute on Thursday.
All this comes as the UAE welcomes Israeli tourists for the first time in history and right in the middle of the pandemic that sees a surge in confirmed cases across the region. In addition, foreigners looking for work in the federation of seven sheikhdoms increasingly overstay their tourist visas amid a cascade of business shutdowns and lay-offs.
[Nation] The family of freedom hero Paul Ngei is in urgent need of funds to enable a great granddaughter of the former Cabinet minister to undergo a heart surgery in India.
The police in Manchester are probing the murder of former supermarket owner 63-year-old Marcia Chin-You who was found stabbed to death in her driveway in the usually quiet community of Ingleside Close.\tCommanding Officer for Manchester,...
It was late on the first Tuesday in November, and Captain Hussen Besheir, an Ethiopian federal soldier, was on duty at a guard post outside the military camp in Dansha.
It was close to midnight when he saw headlights approaching.
Ten armed members of the Tigrayan special forces got out of the vehicle and demanded to see the camp's commander.
\"'We're not here for you',\" Hussen recalled them saying. \"'We want to talk to the leaders.'\"
Hussen refused. An argument ensued and gunfire rang out.
They were the first shots in a conflict that has since engulfed northern Ethiopia's Tigray region, killing many hundreds of people and forcing tens of thousands from their homes.
This week AFP visited the Dansha barracks, home to the Fifth Battalion of the Northern Command of the Ethiopian military, after gaining rare access to Tigray, where a near-complete communications blackout has been in place since the fighting began.
Shell casings littered the camp's grounds, and bullet holes were punched in the walls of buildings and sides of military trucks.
A metal sign at the entrance reading, \"We need to protect the constitution from anti-development forces and lead our country to renaissance,\" was so perforated with gunfire as to be almost illegible.
'Betrayal'
Hussen and others described hours-long rifle and grenade battles against fighters loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), including special forces and militiamen, joined by some federal soldiers of Tigrayan ethnicity who turned against their comrades.
Echoing a statement from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Hussen said soldiers \"were killed in their pyjamas\", adding, \"What happened here is even worse than that.\"
\"Betrayal alone wouldn't describe the feeling that I have. These are soldiers who have been eating and drinking with us,\" he said of those former federal troops who allegedly turned their guns against them.
The government in Addis Ababa has claimed the attack on Dansha - and a simultaneous assault on another barracks in the regional capital Mekele - as justification for its military offensive in Tigray since November 4.
It points to an interview on Tigrayan media in which a prominent TPLF supporter, said a pre-emptive strike was \"imperative\".
\"Should we be waiting for them to launch attacks first? No,\" said Sekuture Getachew, in the interview, which Abiy's office has called a \"confession\".
Confrontation between Abiy and the TPLF was a long time coming. The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades until anti-government protests swept Abiy to power in 2018.
Since then the TPLF has complained of being sidelined and scapegoated for the country's woes.
The rift widened after Ethiopia postponed national elections because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tigray went ahead with its own vote, then branded Abiy an illegitimate ruler.
Ethnic forces
Tadilo Tamiru, a sergeant in the government-aligned Amhara special forces, was 50 kilometres to the south with his 170-strong unit, in a small town along the bo
By Auburn University With the pandemic keeping many Americans away from brick-and-mortar stores, online shopping will be a big emphasis this year. Incentives such as free shipping, curbside pickup and delivery guarantees could help determine which retailers thrive, says Dora Bock, Auburn University associate professor of marketing. (Getty Images) As the holiday shopping frenzy of […]
