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South Africa's historic ruling party, the ANC, has reappointed President Cyril Ramaphosa as its leader, paving the way for a second term as head of state, the African National Congress announced Monday.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
Avid Support Outside Court
Hundreds of supporters of Ace Magashule, the Secretary-General of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, staged protests on Friday as some even tried to force way into the magistrate's court in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State, where Magashule appeared for his hearing over alleged graft revolving around the equivalent of 13.9 million euros in contracts to audit houses with asbestos roofs — awarded under former president Jacob Zuma's corruption-tainted nine-year administration between 2009-2018. His successor Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to root out corruption in South Africa, which has seen the ANC at the head of national politics since the icon Nelson Mandela came into power in 1994 after the fall of the white supremacist oppressive apartheid regime.
The court appearance follows an arrest warrant issued on Tuesday over Magashule's alleged failures to conduct oversight and report corrupt dealings.
The ANC said it would monitor developments closely.
A Budding Young Talent
Teenage actor and hip hop recording artist, Miles Brown, is delivering profound and uplifting lyrical content to his peers by way of his new rap album titled, 'We The Future.' \"It's kind of me reaching out to kids and the youth if you look at the cover. And I'm expressing how we're going to be the ones that are going to be in charge no matter how long it takes. But eventually, all of us are going to be in charge with how things are going on with this world, this country, whatever, and just making sure that we know what we're doing and doing the right things with it and just knowing how much power and impact that we're going to have over time.\"
Acting for Change
Drawing inspiration from the Emmy award-winning tv series ‘Black-ish’ in which Brown portrays Jack Johnson, his body of work explores various social justice issues while inciting the youth to get involved for the sake of society‘s generations to come. “It's such a groundbreaking show because they've talked about things that no other show has talked about. So that inspired me to start talking about other topics that no other artist is talking about or no other kid my age is talking about. So, whether it's mental health, being confident, bullying — there are so many things that are wrong that are going on right now, that I can easily speak on, but as a kid and the way I am and, you know, the position I'm at to be able to speak up on certain things. I kind of want to take advantage of and talk about as many things as I possibly can.\"
Limitless Possibilities
Brown is also musically inspired by his father, rapper Jack 'Wildchild' Brown — a member of the hip-hop trio Lootpack. Still years behind the man he admires so much in his father, the budding teen had to re-record his album after his voice changed when he hit puberty.
He says others can feel too constrained by their age — among other things, to not pursue their passions and fulfil their dreams. “I know friends that have been told they're too young or they don't look good enough to do certain things or they don't look tall enough. I don't look tall enough or I don't-- no one's ever going to be perfect so, whatever people tell you, whether you're too young or you don't look like this or you can't do certain things, that's why I wanted to make this album, because it's really calling out to the future that, we're going to be the ones that are in control and we don't want to repeat the cycle of the way things are going right now.\"
The 15-song collection — the fruit of two years of work, seeks to both empower and inspire tomorrow’s leaders.
Kolkata - Roiled by the coronavirus pandemic and its lockdowns and shut downs, India's economy for the first time in the country's history is in a technical recession at the end of the first half of the 2020-21 fiscal year, according to the central bank. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP. TheReserve […]
