KeenWinBlog

Ethiopia will hold a parliamentary election on June 5, 2021, its National Electoral Board has said on Friday, after postponing the vote from August this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The chairman of the winning party becomes prime minister. News of the vote comes as Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, wrestles with outbreaks of deadly violence. On Thursday, the military killed 42 armed men accused of taking part in a massacre in the western Benishangul-Gumuz region. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he was sending forces to Benishangul-Gumuz, which borders Sudan, the day after unidentified attackers torched homes and killed more than 100 people in a village there. The region is home to several ethnic groups. In recent years, people from the neighbouring Amhara region have started moving into the area, prompting some ethnic Gumuz to complain that fertile land is being taken away from them, experts say. Ethiopia has a federal system comprising 10 regions with the freedo

Gunmen have kidnapped a former Chairman of Olamaboro Local Government Area in Kogi, Mr Emmanuel Ekpa. The state police command spokesman, DSP William Aya, who confirmed this on Sunday in Lokoja said that Akpa was kidnapped along Ochadamu Road in Ofu Local Government Area. He said a police patrol team attached to Ofu discovered the abandoned car of the victim at Ochadamu area in the late hours of Friday, December 18. “On close scrutiny, they found an abandoned ID card in the vehicle bearing the name Emmanuel Isaac Ekpa, apparently indicating that he was kidnapped by gunmen,” Aya said. He said that the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Edeh Ayuba, had raised a team to track the kidnappers and ensure the safe rescue of Ekpa. Meanwhile, the abductors had made contact with the family of the victim, demanding N25 million ransom for his release. A relation who confirmed this to newsmen on condition of anonymity said that the negotiation is still on going.

A man was fatally shot by police on the steps of a landmark New York City cathedral on Sunday after he began firing two semiautomatic handguns at the end of a Christmas choral concert, police said. The gunfire began just before 4pm at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. A 45-minute concert held on the cathedral steps had just concluded and a crowd of several hundred people was drifting away when the gunman started shooting, sending people running down Amsterdam Avenue screaming. A detective, a sergeant and a police officer who were at the event fired 15 rounds, killing the man, New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told reporters following the late-afternoon violence on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.“It is by the grace of God today,” he said, that no one besides the gunman was struck. The suspect, who could not be identified immediately, was struck at least once in the head during the gun battle and was rushed to a local hospital

The Nigerian military has located and exchanged fire with gunmen who may have kidnapped hundreds of secondary school students in northwestern Katsina state, according to a statement from the president. The gang, armed with AK-47s, stormed the Government Science secondary school in Kankara district at about 9:40pm on Friday police and locals said. A parent and school employee reported that roughly half of the school’s 800 students were missing. The attack took place in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state, and police and the military were still working to determine how many were kidnapped and missing. Buhari said in a statement on Saturday that the military had located the kidnappers in a forest and was exchanging fire with them, aided by air support. “I strongly condemn the cowardly bandits’ attack on innocent children at the Science School, Kankara. Our prayers are with the families of the students, the school authorities and the injured,” he said. Police at the scene on Friday exc

  Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of late Uzbek president Islam Karimov, won a court victory in Switzerland that allows her to try to unblock $350 million in frozen assets in the latest chapter of an almost $1 billion corruption scandal. A federal appeal court upheld her claim that she was the rightful beneficiary of Takilant Ltd., a Gibraltar-based shell company that had the funds in a Swiss bank account frozen as part of a 2018 penal order, according to the verdict released Thursday. The criminal order was issued against an individual the court identified only as B., a fellow Uzbek. B. was found guilty of forgery and money laundering for having created a series of companies in her name that were intended to hide the fact that Karimova was the real owner of the cash. “This is an important victory for Gulnara Karimova, given federal prosecutors tried to force through the forfeiture of her assets by denying her the fundamental right to even take a position in this proceeding,” her lawyer

  Bobi Wine, the Ugandan singer and presidential candidate, suspended his campaign on Tuesday after members of his campaign team were injured and his car shot at during clashes between security personnel and his supporters. The developments were the latest in escalating violence in Uganda as authorities crack down on supporters of 38-year-old Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi. Bobi Wine is seeking to end the decades-long rule of 76-year-old President Yoweri Museveni in an election scheduled for January 14. Earlier on Tuesday, Daniel Oyerwot, a music producer for Bobi Wine, was wounded in the mouth by a rubber bullet during the clashes, according to a spokesman for his party. The singer said on Twitter that several members other of his staff were wounded and some were in critical condition. He added that he and his supporters attempted to move to another campaign venue, located in Jinja in eastern Uganda, but security personnel blocked him and shot and blew out his car’s t

  Investigator will decide whether to prosecute members of military over crimes allegedly committed in Afghanistan. Australian forces were deployed to Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Australia will appoint a special investigator to determine whether to prosecute members of the country’s military for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, as the country prepared for the release of a four-year inquiry into the allegations. The inspector-general of the Australian Defence Forces began the inquiry into the conduct of its elite special forces in 2016 after local media reported on allegations that unarmed men and children had been killed between 2005 and 2016. While Morrison did not reveal details of the inquiry, which is set to be released next week, he said it would contain “difficult and hard news for Australians”. “Given the likely allegations of serious and possibly criminal misconduct, the matters raised in

At least one killed and 50 others injured, some allegedly hit by pellets in eyes, in clashes over Riyaz Naikoo's death. Indian forces killed a top rebel commander on Wednesday and shut down mobile phone and internet services in the region  Anti-India protests and clashes have continued for a third day on Friday in Indian-administered Kashmir following the killing of a top rebel leader by government forces. The Hizbul Mujahideen group's commander Riyaz Naikoo and three other rebels were killed in a gunfight with Indian troops on Wednesday in southern Kashmir's Pulwama district, leading to massive clashes in several places. Naikoo, 35, was the chief of operations of Hizbul Mujahideen, the disputed region's largest rebel group, which has spearheaded an armed rebellion against the Indian rule. The clashes continued on Friday as anti-India protesters threw stones at the government forces, who fired shotgun pellets and tear

Father and son charged after mobile phone video of killing in Georgia went viral, triggering outrage across the US Two white men - a father and son - have been arrested and charged with murder in the US state of Georgia over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was shot dead while he was out for a run in February. The charges came days after a mobile phone video that captured the 25-year-old's killing just outside the port city of Brunswick,  went viral, triggering a nationwide outcry. Those close to Arbery celebrated the news, but also expressed frustration at the long wait. "This should have occurred the day it happened," said Akeem Baker, one of Arbery's close friends in Brunswick. "There's no way without the video this would have occurred. I'm just glad the light's shining very bright on this situation.. Gregory McMichael, 64, a former law enforcement officer and his 34-year-old son