RIGOBERT SONG AIRLIFTED TO FRANCE AFTER EMERGING FROM COMA

Former Cameroon international Rigobert Song has been flown from Cameroon to France for further treatment after coming out of a two-day coma. He was admitted to Yaounde Central Hospital on Sunday after falling unconscious.
On Tuesday he waved to fans outside the Yaounde Emergency Centre as he was taken away to the airport.

Rigobert Song

Yaounde Emergency Centre director Dr. Louis Joss Bitang A Mafok said Song had suffered a "cerebral hemorrhage".
Cameroon Health Minister Andre Mama Fouda offered his support: "Song has departed to Pitie Salpetriere hospital in Paris, where he will continue treatment. I am grateful to the Head of State Honorable Paul Biya for instructing the government to take the necessary measures to ensure that Song recovers.’’

"We hail the professionalism of medical doctors in Cameroon and we continue to pray for a safe trip for Rigobert Song and that he should recover very fast," he added.
On Tuesday, Dr. Mafok confirmed Song had "come out of his coma and the oxygen has been disconnected", adding "his high blood pressure has returned to normal and the cerebral haemorrhage has been controlled.

In a career spanning from 1993 to 2010, Song represented Cameroon 137 times. He enjoyed spells in England with Liverpool and West Ham, and ended his career with Turkish club Trabzonspor.
Former Cameroon team-mate Samuel Eto'o tweeted in French: "I wish you courage and a speedy recovery big brother."

Ex-Liverpool players Jamie Carragher, Stan Collymore and Robbie Fowler have also sent messages of support, while Liverpool club tweeted: "Our thoughts are with Rigobert Song and his family at this time."

"ISIS is honoring president Obama,"-Donald Trump

Donald Trump made a startling accusation against President Barack Obama during a Florida rally Wednesday night, telling supporters that the commander in chief is the "founder of ISIS."
"ISIS is honoring president Obama,".
       

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump

The Republican presidential nominee said during a rally at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla. "He is the founder of ISIS. He founded ISIS. And, I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.

Trump's declaration was met with chants of "Lock her up!" from rally-goers.

In addressing Obama, Trump included the president's middle name, calling him Barack Hussein Obama -- a move that's typically been employed by those who claim Obama is secretly a Muslim.
"Radical Islamic terrorism," Trump said. "And people don’t like saying that. Our president refuses to use the term. Every time another event happens, I keep saying, I wonder if he’s gonna say it this time. And he doesn’t say it."
He also took aim at Clinton, for her refusal to use the term. "And Hillary won’t say it either," he said. "She doesn’t wanna say it, cause she doesn’t wanna offend the president, because then bad things could happen to her if she offends the president. Bad things could happen to her. So she’s afraid to say it. Hillary’s afraid to say it. She did say that she would say it because of me, but she’s afraid to say it. But, we have a real problem with radical Islamic terror. It's’ what it is. It’s terror."

Nigerian court says Muslim students can wear hijab to school

LAGOS,
Nigeria’s court of appeals on Thursday ruled that Muslim female students can wear their head covering to schools, dismissing a government ban as “discriminatory and an infringement on the constitutional rights” of the affected students.

The appeals court, chaired by Justice Ali Gumel, also set aside a ruling on Oct. 17, 2014, by a Lagos high court which upheld the ban on the Muslim female head covering.
“The hijab is an act of worship. Refusal to allow female Muslim students is an infraction on their constitutional guaranteed right,” according to the five-man special panel set up to hear the controversial case brought by the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria.
“The judgment of the lower court is hereby set aside,” the panel added in a unanimous ruling read by Gumel.

Abdulganiyyi Adetola-Kazeem, counsel to the Muslim students, hailed the ruling.
“Their Lordships have just confirmed what we know before, that hijab is […] a right for the female Muslim recognized by the constitution and that no authority, whether government or any other, has the power to infringe upon it,” he said shortly after the ruling.

The Lagos government has yet to comment on the ruling which is subject to final appeal to the Supreme Court.

MUSLIM ELECTED AS THE SPEAKER OF A STATE PARLIAMENT IN GERMAN

The first Muslim woman has been elected as the speaker of a state parliament in Germany.

Muhterem Aras

Muhterem Aras, a Green Party MP, took the post in Baden-Württemberg from a member of a populist anti-immigration party on May 11.
“We wrote history today,” she said after sweeping in with a significant majority.
Aras, 50, said her victory sent a message of “openness, tolerance and successful integration”.

Born in Turkey, she moved to a town near Stuttgart with her parents as a child and studied economics before founding her own tax advice firm.
Her political career started in 1992, standing for the Greens on the local council and rising through the local party to become its local leader and enter the Baden-Württemberg state parliament.
She was elected by 96 local MPs, becoming the first Muslim woman to take the office.

Turkey to shut down all Gulen-linked companies

Turkey will probe and shut down all companies linked to the Fetullah Extremist Organization , Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci said Sunday.

Muhammad Fetullah Gullen

Speaking to reporters in Malatya province after visiting the regional governor's office, Tukenkci said Fetullah was behind the attempt "to overthrow the democratically-elected government and the constitutional order in the country.
"Companies which sponsor Fetullah Extremist Organization and provide financial resources to them will be identified individually. Investigation will be opened about them, They will be closed or necessary procedures will be applied on them.”
Tufenkci’s comments come after the government shut down more than 2,000 Gulen-linked institutions across the country following the deadly July 15 coup attempt, an official gazette revealed Saturday.
According to the decrees published in the gazette, 35 health institutions and organizations as well as 1,043 private education institutions, organizations, dormitories, and hostels were closed for having links with the Fetullah.
A total of 1,229 foundations and associations, 19 unions, federation and confederation and 15 foundation schools were also closed.
The measures were taken under the three-month state of emergency in the country, which was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday.
Tufenkci said the state of emergency was “just to enable state institutions to make decisions quicker, work faster and more effectively.
“People are on the streets. Trade also continues. The nation still continues to do its shopping. We took this decision in order to make necessary decisions quickly, without any restrictions on the economy.”
Turkey's government has repeatedly said the deadly plot on July 15, which martyred at least 246 people and injured more than 2,100 others, was organized by followers of U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen.
Gulen is also accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the “parallel state”.

Source:World Bulletin

Tanzania government put Ban on lubricants to stop gay sex

With a motive to curb the spread of HIV and put a ban on LGBT sex, the Tanzanian government has banned the import and sale of sexual lubricants
According to a report in The Independent, Ummy Mwalimu, the Health Minister was spotted saying, "It is true that the government has banned the importation and use of the jelly to curb the spread of HIV."

He said that the availability of lubricants in the market is supposedly increasing homosexuality, which is a punishable offence in the east African country, if one is found indulging in it he will be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Although the law isn't enforced as strictly as in some other parts of east Africa, activists fear the situation is getting worse.

The crackdown on gayism in the port city of Dar es Salaam caught speed after the appointment of new regional commissioner Paul Makonda.

He not only announced immediate action but also arrested several gay men from club.
Some LGBT people who had been open about their sexuality on the internet stopped posting after Makonda threatened that police would arrest those who follow them on social media.

The health Minister also cited that 23% men who have sex with men in Tanzania have HIV and it is a major reason which led to ban on lubricant.

Palestinians who were shot dead in Jerusalem burried

Palestinians who were shot dead in the Jerusalem suburb of al-Ram during separate incidents over the past week were buried on Wednesday.

Muhyee Sidqi al-Tibakhi, 10, died after he was shot in the chest and head on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry told media.

Muhyee Sidqi al-Tibakhi

Locals reported that the child was killed during confrontations that broke out when Israeli forces raided the town.

Israel denied that its forces used live fire during the the raid. The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported that army and police spokespersons “speculated that the boy’s death was a result of a local dispute between rival families.”

The Palestinian health ministry rejected this claim, stating, “They cannot deny that they killed him,” the Ma’an News Agency reported. “It’s their responsibility.”

On Thursday, the human rights group Defense for Children International - Palestine stated that the “boy died from a sponge-tipped bullet to the chest fired by Israeli forces during a clash with youth in the central West Bank town of al-Ram on Tuesday evening.”

An eyewitness reported, the group said, “that a paramilitary Border Police officer fired a sponge-tipped bullet directly at Muhyee al-Tibakhi, which struck him in the chest.”

A preliminary examination at a Ramallah, West Bank, hospital “revealed that a projectile hit the left side of al-Tibakhi’s chest, causing internal bleeding, and ultimately heart failure.”

Defense for Children said that al-Tibakhi is the second Palestinian child to be killed by a sponge-tipped bullet fired by Israeli forces; Muhammad Sinokrot, 16, died of his injuries in 2014 after an Israeli Border Police combatant shot the right side of his head, causing a skull fracture and brain hemorrhage.

“In May, Israeli internal investigators closed the case without charging the Border Police officer responsible,” Defense for Children stated.
Muhyee al-Tibakhi is the 26th Palestinian child killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip so far this year, according to the group.

Last week, 22-year-old Anwar Falah al-Salaymeh was killed in al-Ram during an Israeli army raid.
The army said at the time that soldiers fired on a “speeding vehicle heading towards them,” Ma’an reported, killing al-Salaymeh and seriously wounding one of the other two Palestinians in the car.

“However, the surviving passengers in the car categorically denied that they had attempted to run over the soldiers,” Ma’an added, “saying that they were heading to a bakery and had been unaware that Israeli forces were deployed in the area.”
Israel held al-Salaymeh’s body for six days before releasing his remains to his family overnight Tuesday. He was buried at dawn on Wednesday.
Weekly killings

More than 220 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians since October last year, when a new phase in deadly confrontation reached full swing. More than 30 Israelis, as well as two Americans, a Sudanese national and an Eritrean asylum-seeker, were also slain during that period.

Dozens of Palestinians were killed during protests, and many more were slain during what Israel says were attacks or attempted attacks, primarily against soldiers at West Bank settlements and checkpoints. Such attacks have been waged by individual or small groups of Palestinians operating independently of command from armed resistance groups.

The frequency of attacks and alleged attacks resulting in fatalities has dramatically slowed since the beginning of this year. But shooting deaths of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, continue to occur on a near-weekly basis.

Palestinians carry the body of

Muhyee Sidqi al-Tibakhi during

the 12-year-old’s funeral in the West Bank

town of al-Ram, near Jerusalem, on 20 July

On Monday, a Palestinian man died in an Israeli hospital hours after he was shot and critically injured by Israeli forces at the entrance of Arroub refugee camp near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Mustafa Baradiya was shot in the stomach after he allegedly lightly injured two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint by stabbing them with a screwdriver.
Medics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society were the first to respond to the scene of the incident and treated Baradiya and the soldiers before Israeli ambulances arrived, the Ma’an News Agency reported.

Palestinian media reported that Baradiya, 51, was a teacher working in the Bethlehem area but was originally from Surif village near Hebron.
The man’s brother, Ibrahim Baradiya, was shot dead in the same location three months earlier after he allegedly attempted to hit a soldier in the head with an ax. No Israelis were reported injured during that incident.

The 14 April slaying broke a three-week respite in deadly violence – the longest such stretch since the beginning of last October.
Human rights groups have condemned Israel’s use of lethal violence as a matter of first resort in such incidents, saying it amounts to an unofficial shoot-to-kill policy encouraged by Israel’s top leadership.

Earlier this year, Patrick Leahy, head of the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, urged the State Department to investigate alleged extrajudicial executions of Palestinians by Israeli forces and other “possible gross violations of human rights … that may have involved recipients, or potential recipients, of US military assistance.”
Youth shot while stopping fight

On Thursday, Israeli forces shot and assaulted Yahya Hijazi, 24, as he attempted to stop a quarrel in Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, his mother told the Ma’an News Agency.
While on his way to work Hijazi encountered a family fighting in the camp, his mother said. One of the individuals involved was carrying a knife.
“Hijazi tried to stop the physical argument and took the knife away from the family member, when Israeli forces entered the area,” according to Ma’an.
“My son tried to raise his hand to signal to the officers that he had no intention to carry out attacks, but they ignored that and continued to shoot at him,” the youth’s mother told Ma’an.
“Hijazi was shot nine times in one leg, while the other leg was fractured when the Israeli Border Police officers beat him, his mother said, adding that doctors didn’t expect him to be able to walk for three months,” Ma’an stated.

Also within the last week, Israeli forces fired at a Palestinian motorist and detained him after an apparent traffic accident on Route 60, a main highway near Hebron that has seen numerous deadly incidents since October, including the slayings of the Baradiya brothers.

Palestinians in the Hebron area have been subjected to severe movement restrictions in recent weeks after the slaying of two Israelis in the vicinity, one of them a girl stabbed to death in her home in the Kiryat Arba settlement.

Hebron has borne the brunt of the crackdown on the surge in confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli occupation forces.
Jerusalem
The violence first erupted in Jerusalem in reaction to Israel’s unchecked assaults and incursions in the Old City’s al-Aqsa mosque compound.

A growing movement in Israel which enjoys the support of high-level government figures seeks to destroy the existing structures that make up the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, and replace them with a Jewish “Third Temple.”
The so-called Temple movement believes the site to be the former location of two ancient Jewish temples.

Masked Palestinian protesters pray

following confrontations with Israeli police

at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City

on 28 June.

Earlier this month, the largest group of Jews permitted to visit the al-Aqsa compound in a year entered under heavy police guard.
The family of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the 13-year-old girl slain in the Kiryat Arba settlement last month, were among the at least 50 persons allowed to enter the site, Haaretz reported.

The girl’s family has appealed for the relaxation of rules restricting visits by Jews to the site, and has asked that the Mughrabi gate, the entrance closest to the Western Wall plaza, a site of Jewish pilgrimage and worship, be named after their daughter.

The Mughrabi gate refers to the Moroccan Quarter of the Old City, which dated back to the late 12th century before it was razed by Israel to make way for the Western Wall plaza in the wake of its conquest and subsequent occupation of Jerusalem nearly 50 years ago.
“On the evening of 10 June 1967 the several hundred residents of the Moroccan Quarter were given two hours notice to vacate their homes,” the scholar Tom Abowd writes in The Jerusalem Quarterly.
“Nearly all of the quarter‘s 135 homes were flattened by the evening of 11 June,” with one resident buried alive beneath the rubble of her home, Abowd adds.

Israel has long restricted Palestinians who carry West Bank and Gaza Strip IDs from freely visiting holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Visits to the al-Aqsa mosque compound by right-wing Israelis provoked clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police during Ramadan, which concluded earlier this month.
Source: Electronic intifada

Body of NPCC basketball player Samson Charles Bidan recovered from sand pit

Nebraska

Lincoln County authorities say they have recovered the body of a 19-year-old man from a sand pit near North Platte.

Samson Charles Bidan

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office says members of the Lincoln County Dive team recovered the body of Samson Charles at around 6:01 p.m., on Thursday.

Charles had been missing since Monday when the kayak he was maneuvering down the North Platte River was forced into a Western Engineering sand pit through a breach in a dike separating the pit from the river.  Charles went into the water and did not resurface.

Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer announced yesterday that the search had been suspended and that all efforts had been exhausted for the time being.  Divers and Game and Parks officials encountered a large amount of debris in the pit due to the river flowing through it. The sheriff’s office didn’t say what prompted searchers to return to the site of the accident.

Chief Deputy Roland Kramer says the body was positively identified and the cause of death has been ruled an accidental drowning.  Drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the case, according to Kramer.

The LCSO, in a statement on their Facebook page, thanked Western Engineering, the Lincoln County Dive Team and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission for their efforts in the search and recovery.  They also thanked the American Red Cross for their support during the investigation.
Charles was a basketball star from Tanzania and was a member of the North Platte Community College men’s basketball team.
Hundreds of Facebook posts have been made in remembrance of Charles and the amazing impact he had on fellow students, community members and members of his church.

Source: NP Post

A search for the body of Samson Charles Bidan has been suspended

NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska.
A search for the body of a missing kayaker in a North Platte sand pit pond has been suspended.
 

Authorities have been searching for 20-year-old Tanzanian Samson Charles, also known as Samson Charles Bidan, since he went under the water Monday, and have turned from hoping to rescue the man to recovering his body.
 

      Lincoln County Sheriff Jerome Kramer tells the North Platte Telegraph that crews are in the process of blocking flow from the pond and that if the body has not surfaced by Monday, officials will consider again sending a sonar boat out to search.
 
      Rescuers were first called to the area around 7:20 p.m. Monday after two of three kayakers on the North Platte River were shunted by the current into the sandpit and overturned. One kayaker reached safety; Charles, a 7-foot tall member of the North Platte Community College basketball team, did not.

213 People killed in fighting in Juba

JUBA, South Sudan  

Fighting in South Sudan’s capital continued Sunday as forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar clashed for the third day in a row. 213 people have been killed in the fighting at the weekend.

The fresh flare-up in Juba has prompted international calls for restraint.

The latest outbreak of violence comes barely two months after the formation of a transitional government of national unity to end more than two years of bloody civil war in the world’s youngest nation.

South Sudan army’s Chief of Staff Gen. Paul Malong Awan told Anadolu Agency the military was aware of “anti-peace elements” planning to drag the country back into conflict.

“The SPLA [Sudan People’s Liberation Army] will not tolerate such activities and will act according to the law to protect civilians,” Gen. Awan said.

However, a spokesman for Machar, James Gatdet Dak, posted a statement online claiming the former rebels’ “partner” in government was unable to control its forces.

The two sides also traded accusations over fighting in the city’s Jebel area with the official military saying it prevented “opposition forces” from advancing into central Juba.

Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Ellen Margrethe Loj, on Saturday urged forces loyal to Kiir and Machar to end hostilities.

Several peace deals, including a 2014 permanent cease-fire, have been reached before, only to be broken amid mutual recriminations.

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan in a statement also condemned the resumption of fighting in Juba Sunday. It said the fighting “is severely impacting on the civilian population.

“Both UNMISS compounds in Juba have sustained impacts from small arms and heavy weapons fire. The United Nations urges all parties to respect the sanctity of the United Nations and condemns any deliberate targeting of United Nations premises and its personnel,” the statement added.

“The heavy fighting in Juba town, including in close proximity to the UNMISS compounds at UN House Jebel and Tomping has prompted approximately 1,000 internally displaced people to flee from the UNMISS protection of civilians site [PoC] 1 into the UNMISS compound at UN House Jebel.

“The heavy fighting downtown Juba has forced hundreds of civilians to seek protection at UNMISS’ Tomping base. The United Nations is gravely concerned about reports that armed forces have prevented civilians from seeking protection,” the statement said.

Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday released a statement saying he had contacted Kiir and urged him to ensure stability would be restored as soon as possible for the sake of the South Sudanese people.

“It is with profound regret that we have observed the renewed fighting unravel in South Sudan. This is truly a very sad and difficult time for our neighbor. We join the region, and the global community, in calling for a cessation to these brutal actions that endanger the lives of ordinary citizens,” Kenyatta said.

The Kenyan leader has been among key mediators who travelled to South Sudan on numerous occasions to try and broker a peace agreement between the two warring parties.

Kenyatta added that he asked the warring sides “to urgently move heavy weaponry and huge contingents of soldiers out of civilian spaces of the capital Juba.”

Meanwhile, Kenya Airways suspended all flights to Juba due to the ongoing violence.

South Sudan was thrown into civil war in Dec. 2013 two years after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. Kiir accused his sacked deputy-turned-rebel-leader Machar of plotting a coup, an accusation Machar denied.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have died and more than 2.4 million have been displaced from their homes.

Truck Attack Kills 84 in Nice, France

NICE, FRANCE

At least 84 people were killed and 100 injured in the French city of Nice when a man deliberately drove a lorry into a crowd celebrating the country's main national holiday, authorities said.

The attacker behind the wheel on Thursday drove at high speed along the famed Promenade des Anglais seafront, careering into spectators who had been watching a Bastille Day firework display.

Police shot and killed the driver, officials said.

France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that children were among the dead and 18 people were in a critical condition.

"There's no denying the terrorist nature of this attack of yet again the most extreme form of violence," French President Francois Hollande said in an address to the nation in the early hours of Friday.

Hollande said that he would extend a state of emergency - which had been in place since the attacks in Paris last November - for another three months from July 26.

"Nothing will make us yield in our will to fight terrorism. We will further strengthen our actions in Iraq and in Syria. We will continue striking those who attack us on our own soil," he said, in reference to France's involvement in a coalition of nations carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

The attack happened just as the firework display - which was attended by thousands of people - was ending, at around 11:00pm local time (21:00GMT).

Eric Ciotti, a local MP, said the lorry continuously rammed the crowd over a distance of two kilometres.

Ciotti said on BFM TV that police killed the driver "apparently after an exchange of gunfire", adding that the truck was loaded with weapons and grenades.

Residents of Nice, a Mediterranean city close to the Italian border, were advised to stay indoors.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

ISIS confirms death of top commander Omar al-Shishani

 Commander Umar Al Shishani 

IRBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Islamic State (ISIS) has confirmed reports from March that Omar al-Shishani (the Chechen) one of its top military commanders has been killed. However they claim, contrary to the original reports, he was killed this week fighting south of Mosul in Iraq – not in Syria months ago.  

On Wednesday the ISIS mouthpiece media outlet, Amaq, reported that Shishani was “martyred” fighting in the Iraqi city of Shirqat, just south of Mosul. 

This directly contradicts reports by the high-level US officials and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor group who both said he had been mortally wounded by an American airstrike in Syria and died a few days later. 

The Pentagon, at the time confirmed these reports. Now they are neither confirming or denying ISIS’s latest claim that Shishani has just been killed in Iraq. 

Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory told Reuters that ISIS likely stalled announcing the death in order to organize Shishani’s successor, saying he “confirmed from the doctor who went to see him,” that he did indeed die last March. 

ISIS denied the reports at the time but did not produce any evidence to prove Shishani was still alive. 

Shishani, whose real name was Tarkhan Batirashvili, was originally from Georgia. 

The US, believing Shishani was ISIS’s most senior military commander – the groups “minister of war”, who ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi relied on as his main military advisor – had placed a $5 million bounty on the militant’s head. 

Shishani had previously fought the Russian Army in Chechnya. 

President Bashir will be granted his full security as a head of state-Rwandese Foreign Minister insists

Rwanda will not arrest Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir wanted by the International Criminal court (ICC); Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Louise Mushikiwabo announced this morning in a press briefing.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir

The Sudanese leader is expected to attend the 27th African Union summit in Kigali Rwanda.
“President Bashir will be granted his full security as a head of state, ICC issues will be addressed by those who are concerned and I don’t think they expect him to be arrested in Rwanda,” Mushikiwabo said.

In 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Bashir. The court accuses him of directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur since 2005. The unrest cost lives of more than 10,000 civilians.

President Al Bashir is expected to attend the AU Summit in

Kigali, Rwanda.

Mushikiwabo told media at the ongoing African Union Summit, that African leaders respect a principle that, “none can be arrested while on duty assigned to him by his/her constituency.”
Initially, Mushikiwabo said, ICC attracted many African countries, but deviated for providing equity justice when it was driven into political matters.
“ICC lost its original mission it was established for,” she noted.
“We will apply the rules put in place by AU than ICC since there is even nowhere Rwanda aligns with ICC,” she said.

Rwanda is not signatory to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the treaty which established and now governs the ICC.

The country has always raised concerns against ICC’s impartiality and so has Africa.
Most of African countries have been petitioning the court, which, it appears, targets the continent’s leaders and closes eyes to criminals from other parts of the world.
Previous AU summits examined modalities on how they could withdraw from ICC.

More than 10,000 refugees will be admitted in the US this year

Washington DC.

The United States will welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year as promised by President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry announced Tuesday.

Washington has been criticized by some activists for moving too slowly to settle those fleeing the conflict, while Obama's opponents warn their number may include terrorists.

But Kerry said the United States is now on course to admit 10,000 vulnerable refugees, chosen from UN camps and vetted by US security and intelligence agencies.
"It's also representing six-fold increase over what we did the year before," Kerry said, referring to the US fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to September 30.
"I'm proud to say that the United States is by far the largest contributor of emergency aid, but we all recognize that still more needs to be done," he said.
Kerry made the remarks at a dinner in Washington to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, shortly before he was due to set off on a tour of European capitals.

This journey was to take him Friday to Moscow, where he is set to meet with President Vladimir Putin and lobby Russia to do more to help end Syria's five-year-old conflict.
Syria is in the grip of what Kerry called the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, and more than 4.8 million people have fled the country.
The United States has traditionally been by far the world's most generous host for refugees but has been criticized for moving too slowly to respond to the Syrian crisis.

Frontline states like Lebanon and Jordan meanwhile have been all but overwhelmed, and the arrival of streams of unvetted migrants on Europe's shores provoked a crisis.

Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump has repeatedly alleged Obama plans allow hundreds of thousands of Syrians to come to the United States without security checks.
But the 10,000 who will be allowed in before September 30 were selected in UN camps as vulnerable -- such as widows, the elderly and disabled -- and screened by US officials.

Four police officers killed in Madinah suicide bomb attack

QATIF/MADINA: Two back to back suicide blasts struck mosques in Saudi cities of Qatif and Medina on Monday, killing five people, four of them were security officials.

In the first attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia on Monday, without causing any other injuries, residents told AFP.

"Suicide bomber for sure. I can see the body" torn apart, said a witness to the attack in the Shiite-populated city of Qatif.

Nasima al-Sada, another resident, told AFP that "one bomber blew himself up near the mosque", frequented by Shiites in downtown Qatif, on the Gulf coast.

No bystanders were hurt, she said.

The blast, near the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, was the second suicide bombing Monday in the predominantly Sunni kingdom.



A second suicide blast went off at a parking lot near security headquarters outside Masjid-e-Nabvi in Medina shortly after Iftar, killing at least three people.

According to reports, suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, the second-holiest site in Islam.

Two security officers were among the victims.

The bomber detonated his device as the security officers were breaking their day-long fast for Ramadan, Al Arabiya reported.

The blast followed others in Qatif and Jeddah on Monday, the last day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and start
of the Eid al-Fitra festival.

Shahid Khawar Malik, an eyewitness, said that the blast took place at Gate No 1 of the mosque shortly after Iftar.

Another witness, Syed Azafar Ali Shah, said that all gates of the mosqu

Israel's Netanyahu starts landmark Africa tour in Uganda.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Uganda on Monday for a rare tour of sub-Saharan Africa, seeking new trade partners and marking the 40th anniversary of a hostage rescue in which his brother died.

In a statement just before his departure for the four-day tour, Netanyahu called the first visit by an Israeli premier to the region in decades "historic".

The trip comes as Israel launches a $13-million aid package to strengthen economic ties and cooperation with African countries, said Netanyahu's office.

Israel would also provide African states with training in "domestic security" and health, it said.

After Uganda, Netanyahu will travel on to Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda, but he is also meeting other African leaders at a summit in Uganda.

"Coming on a journey like this is also very important from diplomatic, economic and security perspectives and I am pleased that Israel is going back to Africa in a big way," Netanyahu said in a statement, adding: "We are opening Africa to Israel again."

The Arab-Israeli conflict drove a wedge between African countries and the Jewish state in the 1960s.

Following wars between Israel and its neighbours in 1967 and 1973, north African nations led by Egypt put pressure on sub-Saharan African states to cut ties with Israel, which many did.

Relations were not helped by Israel's friendship with the apartheid regime in South Africa before it fell in 1994.

In an interview with Uganda's Daily Monitor newspaper ahead of his visit, Netanyahu said his visit was an attempt to thaw relations.

"I'm very open about it, that's true," Netanyahu said, according to the paper.

Honouring his commando brother

Beyond diplomacy and trade, the trip will have deep personal meaning for Netanyahu.

His brother Yonatan was killed in July 1976 as he led a commando raid in Entebbe, Uganda, to free passengers aboard an Air France plane hijacked by two Palestinians and two Germans.

Uganda's deputy foreign minister Henry Okello Oryem told AFP Netanyahu would be given a gun salute on arrival, before "proceeding to the 40th anniversary commemoration ceremony at the old airport terminal."

He later takes part in an anti-terrorism summit alongside leaders from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Zambia, before heading to Nairobi later on Monday.

Israel's dealings with Africa currently constitutes only two percent of its foreign trade, leaving plenty of room for growth.

Demand is rising for its defence expertise and products.

But it also sees African countries as potential allies, particularly at the United Nations and other international bodies, where it is regularly condemned over its occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Some African countries are keen to obtain Israeli agricultural and water technology, which the country has been promoting, say officials. Netanyahu's trip follows years of efforts to improve ties.

(AFP)

Eid al-Fitr 2016 in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar on Wednesday July 06

Riyadh/Dubai/Doha/Singapore: It was confirmed that Eid will be on Wednesday after people failed to sight the new moon on Monday evening. The Saudi Supreme Court confirmed there will be 30 days of Ramadan this year meaning Tuesday will be the last day of Ramadan.

In a statement, the Royal Court said that it has been notified by the Supreme Court that, following reports received from courts based on eye monitors who are devoted to verify whether the lunar month of Ramadan has completed or to be proceeded for one more day, as per the instructions of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), the month of Shawal, which follows Ramadan, was not eye seen.

"So, it has been decided that tomorrow, Tuesday will be the 30th day of Ramadan 1437 H. corresponding to July 5, 2016 and that Wednesday will be the first day of Shawal 1437 H. corresponding to July 6, 2016, itself the first day of blessed Eid Al-Fitr, a three-day celebration following the end of the blessed month of Ramadan", the statement said.

Earlier, local media in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar are reporting that Eid al Fitr in the two oil rich countries will be celebrated on Wednesday July 06, 2016. The reports followed as Shawwal Crescent has not been sighted in the region today.

It is hence being reported that Tuesday, July 5, is the last day of the holy month of Ramadan. Accordingly, Eid Al Fitr will be marked in the Kingdom on Wednesday, July 6.

In a message posted on social media site Twitter, Dubai Media Office said that Tuesday, July 5, is the last day of the holy month of Ramadan. Therefore, Eid Al Fitr will be marked in the UAE on Wednesday.

In a statement released today evening, the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs (Awqaf) in Qatar has said said Eid Al Fitr in the country is expected to begin on Wednesday, July 6

"The announcement comes after the High Judiciary Council in Saudi Arabia said that no new moon could be seen tonight", Doha news reported.

Elsewhere in the world, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore on Monday announced that Muslims in Singapore will celebrate Eid al Fitr on Wednesday July 06, 2016. The announcement is made after no confirmed report of moon sighting received from any part of the country.

"According to astronomical calculations, the crescent for the month of Syawal did not appear during sunset today as it has set earlier than the sun. This signifies that tomorrow will be the end of 30 days of Ramadan.

"As such, I am pleased to declare that the first day of Syawal for the year 1437 Hijrah falls on Wednesday, 6th July 2016", Dr Mohamed Fatris Bakaram Mufti, Republic of Singapore said in a statement.

Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and Australia are among the first countries where sun sets earlier than other places in the world.

Though no formal announcement of Eid al Fitr 2016 celebrations has been made by moon committees in Australia, Japan and New Zeland so far, it is most likely that the Muslim festival will be celebrated here also on Wednesday July 06, 2016.

Indonesia's ministry of religious affairs ruled Monday that Muslims in the country will celebrate Eid Al Fitr on Wednesday after receiving a report that the new moon is still not visible over the entire country.

Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said that for some of the observers -- situated at 90 points around the country -- the new moon had still not been sighted (known locally as ru'yah).

"In all the regions, not all observers could see the moon as it remains under the horizon," he said, adding that this would see the Ramadan fasting period extend to 30 days.

"Thus the first day of [the month of] Shawal will fall Wednesday," Syaifuddin was quoted as saying by Metro TV.

The UAE’s moon sighting committee met at the Judiciary Department in Abu Dhabi under the chairmanship of Sultan bin Saeed Al Badi, Minister of Justice to confirm the start of the month of Shawwal, which will mark the end of Ramadan and start of Eid Al Fitr.

Earlier, the moon-sighting committees in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and other Arab States had declared that they will meet today i.e. Monday July 4 corresponding to 29th day of Ramadan in their respective countries after Maghrib prayer to witness the Crescent of Shawwal and thus decide the first day of Eid al Fitr.

The Supreme Council in Saudi Arabia and moon sighting committees in other Gulf states had also issued appeals to Muslims to look for the crescent of the month of Shawwal on Monday evening (Ramadan 29-July 4), SPA reported.

"Whoever sights the crescent should report to the nearest court and register his testimony or report to the concerned local authority in his area where he sighted the crescent to facilitate informing it to the nearest court," the court said in its announcement.

From his side, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Badi, Minister of Justice of United Arab of Emirates, had issued an order to set up the moon-sighting committee to confirm the start of the month of Shawwal, which will mark the end of Ramadan and start of Eid Al Fitr, Khaleej Times daily reported.

The decision called on all Sharia courts across the country to look out for the crescent moon and inform the committee.

The committee began meeting after Maghreb prayer – around 07:00 pm – at the Judiciary Department in Abu Dhabi. It will be under the chairmanship of Justice Minister and other members. It was said that if the crescent (new moon) is not sighted on Monday July 04, the next day will be counted as 30th day of Ramadan, and Eid al Fitr will be celebrated on Wednesday July 6, 2016.

The beginning and end of Ramadan, and a month in the Islamic Calendar, has traditionally been based on “hilal” sightings, which is the method mentioned in the Holy Quran and followed by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

As per this tradition, a new month is sighted on 29th of the prevailing month. If the new moon, Crescent, is sighted, the next day is counted as first day of the next month. If not, the next day is counted as 30th day of the prevailing month and the new month begins thereafter.

Since United States, United Kingdom, Canada and European countries normally rely on moon announcements by Saudi Arabia, Muslims in these countries will celebrate Eid al Fitr along with their counterparts in Arab states.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and other Gulf states have completed 29 days of Ramadan on Monday. Along with the Arab states, United States, United Kingdom, Canada and European countries too have finished counting the similar number of Ramadan days.

Oman is the exception. The only country in the Gulf had started counting the month of Ramadan a day later, and here Monday July 04 coincides 28th of Ramadan. In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries too Muslims have till Monday counted 28 days of Ramadan. Ramadan in these countries had begun a day later than the Arab states.

Muslims in these countries therefore will look for the Eid al Fitr 2016 moon on Tuesday July 05, 2016 corresponding to 29th day of Ramadan in these countreis, and Eid here will be celebrated either on July 06 or July 07.

Earlier, the International Astronomical Center said, people from North America, North Africa and the whole Middle East and Asia are unlikely to sight the crescent of the month of Shawwal with naked eyes on Monday evening.

"It is impossible to see the crescent from the areas located under the red color. Because either the Moon on this day sets before the Sunset and/or the topocentric conjunction occurs after the Sunset," Moroccoworldnews quoted the International Astronomical Center as claiming on its website.

Similarly, Ibrahim Al Jarwan, Assistant Director of the Sharjah Centre for Astronomy and Space Sciences, UAE also said Ramadan is expected to end on Tuesday, July 5, 2016

“Wednesday, July 6, will be the start of the month of Shawal. It is impossible to see the Crescent on Monday night. So most likely Eid al Fitr will start on Wednesday,” he said.