Month: December 2018

Zimbabwe Hikes Traffic Fines to Boost Revenue

Posted on by SeeAF

Motorists in Zimbabwe are ringing in the new year by toasting — or cursing — increased traffic fines which are expected to raise needed revenue by the cash-strapped government and reduce car accidents. 

Come Jan. 1, if motorists break a traffic law, they will pay as much as $700 for offenses such as speeding, drinking and driving, overloading their vehicle, or driving without a license. The previous maximum penalty was just $30. 

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government says the move, besides raising revenue, will reduce fatalities on the roads. But Stanford Chigwedere, a public transport driver, says he is against the idea because casualties on Zimbabwe’s roads are not caused by bad driving alone. 

“Roads in Zimbabwe are now useless. They want to fine us; we pay tax but they are doing nothing,” Chigwedere said. “Now they are increasing fines to as much as $700, where will that money go to? All roads are full of potholes. We are giving them lots of money. We are not causing deaths or accidents on the roads; it is the police chasing motorists that cause accidents because we will be on these bad roads.”

Critics say the move is a desperate measure to squeeze money from an already overburdened citizenry. 

Clever Mundau says he is for the new traffic fines being introduced by the government.

“I think the responsible authority have views, maybe they want the roads to be OK.” Mundau said. “So they are going to make sure that the roads are OK. So let’s just give them time.”

According to the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, major causes of road accidents include speeding and lack of discipline. Obio Chinyere, the head of the government agency, says fines by themselves will not work.  

“It is not only the fines when you look at the road safety, there are other instruments we can actually use, yes, the fines, but you also have to bring in education, road worthy vehicles,” Chinyere said. “We are saying; yes you can make an error as you drive, if you move out of the road, it shouldn’t be a death sentence, the road should be able to forgive you. Once you leave that road, you are gone.”

Narrow roads have also been an issue, causing some motorists to swerve and get into accidents.

The government says it is embarking on a program to create four-lane roads as the current infrastructure has become dangerous after years of neglect.

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Sudanese Police Fire Tear Gas at Protesters

Posted on by SeeAF

Police in Sudan’s capital fired tear gas Monday at demonstrators who had planned to march to the presidential palace to call for a change in President Omar al-Bashir’s government.

Witnesses say demonstrators gathered in groups in downtown Khartoum, but were quickly confronted by security forces and unable to march to the palace of President Omar al-Bashir. Some in the crowd chanted, “The people want the fall of the regime,” the slogan used in the 2011 Arab Spring.

Witnesses say demonstrators gathered in downtown Khartoum but were quickly confronted by security forces and were unable to march to the palace. Some in the crowd chanted, “The people want the fall of the regime,” the main slogan used in the 2011 Arab Spring protests.

Most shops in the area were closed ahead of the planned march, which was organized by professional groups, including lawyers, doctors and teachers.

Witnesses say police arrested dozens of people.

The anti-government demonstrations are in their second week, having begun as a protest against a sharp increase in the price of bread, a staple food in the country. The demonstrations have been forcibly dispersed by Sudanese security forces.

Sudan’s government said 19 people have been killed, including two security personnel, since the protests broke out the northeastern city of Atbara on Dec. 19.

Human rights group Amnesty International said 37 people have been killed in the protests.

Sudan’s government said more than 200 protesters and nearly 190 members of the security forces have been wounded.

Authorities have closed schools and declared curfews and states of emergency in several regions since the protests began.

Protesters have repeatedly targeted and burned the offices of Bashir’s party and called for an end to his 29-year rule. Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup.

Bashir spoke on national television Monday to commemorate the country’s Independence Day on Jan. 1. He acknowledged the economic troubles the country is facing, but did not explicitly mention the protests.

“Our country is going through difficult economic circumstances … we are confident that we are close to overcoming this difficult and temporary period,” he said.

Prices for food in Sudan have climbed sharply in recent months, with inflation topping 60 percent. This comes after the government cut subsidies earlier in 2018.

Sudan’s economy deteriorated after South Sudan became independent, depriving Khartoum of much of its oil revenue. Sudan is facing a foreign exchange crisis and soaring inflation, despite the United States lifting a trade embargo in October 2017.
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Elizabeth Warren Makes Big Move Toward 2020 US Presidential Run

Posted on by SeeUS

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday took the first major step toward launching a widely anticipated campaign for the presidency, hoping her reputation as a populist fighter can help her navigate a Democratic field that could include nearly two dozen candidates.

“No matter what our differences, most of us want the same thing,” the 69-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a video that highlights her family’s history in Oklahoma. “To be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules and take care of the people we love. That’s what I’m fighting for and that’s why today I’m launching an exploratory committee for president.”

Warren burst onto the national scene a decade ago during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. She quickly became one of the party’s more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Now, as a likely presidential contender, she is making an appeal to the party’s base. Her video notes the economic challenges facing people of color along with images of a women’s march and Warren’s participation at an LGBT event.

In an email to supporters, Warren said she’d more formally announce a campaign plan early in 2019.

Warren is the most prominent Democrat yet to make a move toward a presidential bid and has long been a favorite target of President Donald Trump.

In mid-December, former Obama housing chief Julian Castro also announced a presidential exploratory committee, which legally allows potential candidates to begin raising money. Outgoing Maryland Rep. John Delaney is the only Democrat so far to have formally announced a presidential campaign.

But that’s likely to change quickly in the new year as other leading Democrats take steps toward White House runs.

Warren enters a Democratic field that’s shaping up as the most crowded in decades, with many of her Senate colleagues openly weighing their own campaigns, as well as governors, mayors and other prominent citizens. One of her most significant competitors could be Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is eyeing another presidential run harnessing the same populist rhetoric.

She must also move past a widely panned October release of a DNA test meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. The move was intended to rebut Trump’s taunts of Warren as “Pocahontas.” Instead, her use of a genetic test to prove ethnicity spurred controversy that seemed to blunt any argument she sought to make. There was no direct mention of it in the video released Monday.

Warren has the benefit of higher name recognition than many others in the Democratic mix for 2020, thanks to her years as a prominent critic of Wall Street who originally conceived of what became the government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She now faces an arduous battle to raise money and capture Democratic primary voters’ attention before Iowa casts its first vote in more than a year. She has an advantage in the $12.5 million left over from her 2018 re-election campaign that she could use for a presidential run.

Warren’s campaign is likely to revolve around the same theme she’s woven into speeches and policy proposals in recent years: battling special interests, paying mind to the nexus between racial and economic inequities.

“America’s middle class is under attack,” Warren said in the video. “How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.”

 
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Chad Frees Nearly 60 Amnestied ‘Political’ Prisoners

Posted on by SeeAF

Chad’s President Idriss Deby on Monday freed nearly 60 detainees considered political prisoners by rights groups as part of a general amnesty for former rebels, the country’s justice minister told AFP.

Those released included Moussa Tao, arrested in 2013 on a conspiracy charge; and Colonel Haroun Bata and about 10 Chadian “mercenaries” accused of having organised an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea a year ago.

“We conducted a ceremony to release 58 prisoners as part of the general amnesty,” said Justice Minister Djimet Arabi.

But former rebel Baba Ladde, jailed for eight years earlier this month, was not on the list, the minister said.

“He can still be subject to a reduced sentence or a presidential pardon,” he said.

Rights groups in Chad, who have on several occasions called for the full application of the amnesty, declared in May, welcomed the news.

Most of those released had been held for several months without trial, they said.

At the beginning of December, 12 other prisoners had been released, said Jean-Bosco Manga, spokesman for the ACAIAT group, a citizens group campaigning for a full amnesty.

Arabi said the total number of prisoners freed came to 70 and cases were still under consideration.

 

 
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Iraqi Jets Strike IS in Syria After Assad’s Authorization

Posted on by SeeEA

The Iraqi military says its fighter jets struck an Islamic State position inside Syria, a day after the Syrian government authorized its neighbor to target the militants at will.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command says F-16s struck a two-story house Monday in Souseh, close to the border, that was being used as a meeting place for IS leaders.

The Associated Press could not verify the number of casualties.

Iraq has regularly coordinated with the U.S.-led coalition to strike IS positions inside Syria by air and artillery. On Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad formally invited Iraq to do so, reflecting the changing battlefield in Syria as the U.S. prepares to withdraw its forces.

 
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Emirati Court Upholds 10-year Sentence Against Activist

Posted on by SeeEA

A high court in the United Arab Emirates upheld a 10-year prison sentence of Emirati rights activist Ahmed Mansoor for criticizing the government in social media posts, local media and human rights groups said Monday.

The Dubai-based Gulf News reported that Mansoor’s sentencing, which also includes a $272,000 fine, was upheld by a branch of the Federal Supreme Court dealing with state security. His lawyer did not immediately respond to calls by The Associated Press.

 

Mansoor was convicted of seeking to damage the UAE’s reputation and relationship with neighboring states by posting false reports and information.

 

An electrical engineer with a master’s from the University of Colorado Boulder, Mansoor was the recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015. He was described as one of the few voices within the UAE who regularly raised concerns on arbitrary detention, torture and issues related to the judiciary. He also wrote about stateless residents in the Gulf, known as Bidoon.

 

In March 2017, Mansoor was arrested when security forces raided his home in the emirate of Ajman, confiscating computers and phones.

 

In the weeks leading up to his arrest, he had criticized the imprisonment of other activists in the UAE, including Nasser bin-Ghaith, an academic and economist who was sentenced to 10 years after his criticism of Emirati and Egyptian authorities.

 

Human Rights Watch previously reported that Mansoor had also used Twitter to draw attention to rights violations committed by the Saudi-led coalition at war in Yemen, of which the UAE is an active member.

 

Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director, Lynn Maalouf, said the decision to uphold his prison sentence “confirms there is no space for free expression in the United Arab Emirates.” The verdict cannot be appealed, she said in a statement.

 
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Campaigning Starts in Ukraine’s Hard-to-Predict Presidential Race

Posted on by SeeEU

A 90-day political campaign period has opened in Ukraine, where the incumbent president’s future is uncertain.

President Petro Poroshenko hasn’t yet announced whether he plans to run in a March 31 election, although he is expected to seek re-election. Monday marked the official start of campaigning.

A poll of 2,017 eligible voters published last week put Poroshenko’s approval rating at just over 14 percent. Another likely candidate, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, had support from 16 percent of those surveyed.

Other presidential hopefuls trailed behind the two. The Razumkov Center poll had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.

Ukraine has been hit hard by the tug-of-war with Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea and backed a separatist insurgency in the country’s industrial heartland in the east.

 
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