african countries 24

Thirteen French soldiers fighting jihadists in Mali were killed in an accident between two helicopters, the French presidency said on Tuesday, the single biggest loss of French troops in combat in the region since intervening there in 2013.

France has more than 4,500 troops countering Islamist insurgencies in the Sahel region, where violence by militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the sparely-populated area has proliferated in recent years.

“The president announces with deep sadness the death of 13 French troops in Mali on the evening of Nov. 25, in an accident between their two helicopters during a combat mission against jihadists,” the statement from the president’s office said.

The militants use central and northern Mali as a launch pad for attacks across the largely desert region.

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Hong Kong’s democrats scored a landslide majority in district council elections, which saw a record turnout after six months of anti-government protests, increasing pressure on the Chinese-ruled city’s leader on Monday to listen to calls for democracy.

Sunday’s elections marked a rare weekend lull in the sometimes violent unrest, with pro-democracy candidates securing nearly 90% of the 452 district council seats, broadcaster RTHK reported, despite a strongly resourced and mobilized pro-establishment opposition.

Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive, Carrie Lam, said in a statement the government respected the results and wished “the peaceful, safe and orderly situation to continue”.

“There are various analyses and interpretations in the community in relation to the results, and quite a few are of the view that the results reflect people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society,” she said.

The government would “listen to the opinions of members of the public humbly and seriously reflect”, Lam said.

Results showed upset wins for democrats against heavyweight pro-Beijing opponents when they started trickling in after midnight on Sunday, causing some voting centers to erupt in loud cheers and chants of “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution Now” – a slogan used by many protesters over the past six months.

Pictures posted online showed people celebrating outside polling stations and on the streets of Central, the city’s business district, popping bottles of champagne.

Regina Ip, a member of the Hong Kong government’s leading advisory body and a former security chief, was loudly heckled in Central by lunchtime protesters.

“In general, I think the election results do reflect that the public is very dissatisfied with the government,” she told reporters.

The voting ended with no major disruptions across the city of 7.4 million people on a day that saw massive, though orderly, queues form outside voting centers.

“This is the power of democracy. This is a democratic tsunami,” said Tommy Cheung, a former student protest leader who won a seat in the Yuen Long district close to China’s border.

“This district election shows that the central government needs to face the demands of a democratic system,” Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said. “Today’s result is the first step of our long way to democracy.”

In self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own, the Presidential Office expressed “great admiration and support” for the election result.

“The election fully demonstrates Hong Kong people’s absolute will to pursue freedom and democracy,” it said.

The pro-democracy camp only secured around 100 seats at the previous polls four years ago. Almost three million people voted, a record turnout of more than 71% that appeared to have been spurred by the turmoil, almost double the number last time.

Starry Lee, chairwoman of the city’s largest pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, apologized for her party’s performance.

“For this major defeat, we do not want to find any excuses and reasons,” said Lee. She said the party rejected her offer to resign earlier on Monday.

‘PATH OF STRUGGLE’

Hong Kong’s district councils control some spending and decide a range of livelihood issues such as transport. They also serve as an important grassroots platform to radiate political influence.

“I believe this result is because there are a lot of voters who hope to use this election and their vote to show their support for the (protest) movement, and their five demands, and their dissatisfaction with the Hong Kong government,” said former student leader Lester Shum, who won a seat.

The protesters’ demands include full democracy, as well as an independent inquiry into perceived police brutality.

“The district council is just one very important path of struggle. In future, we must find other paths of struggle to keep fighting,” Shum said.

China’s foreign ministry, asked about the election, said stopping violence and restoring order in Hong Kong were the paramount tasks.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency announced the completion of the election, but did not say which side had won.

“Rioters, in concert with external forces, have continuously committed and escalated violence, resulting in social and political confrontation,” it said. “…Months of social unrest have seriously disrupted the electoral process.”

Demonstrators are angry at what they see as Chinese meddling in the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

China denies interfering and says it is committed to the “one country, two systems” formula for the autonomy of Hong Kong put in place in 1997. Police say they have shown restraint in the face of potentially deadly attacks.

Sophie Richardson, China Director of Human Rights Watch, said the results showed “a commitment to peaceful political participation” and called on Hong Kong and Beijing authorities to address “legitimate grievances”.

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A passenger plane with about 17 passengers on board crashed on Sunday in the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing several people, the provincial governor’s office said.

The plane, operated by the local company Busy Bee, crashed during takeoff for a flight to the city of Beni, North Kivu Governor Carly Nzanzu Kasivita’s office said in a statement. The number of fatalities was not yet clear.

Air accidents are relatively frequent in Congo because of lax safety standards and poor maintenance. All Congolese commercial carriers, including Busy Bee, are banned from operating in the European Union.

A cargo plane departing from the same airport crashed an hour after take-off in October, killing all eight passengers.

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The United States and France are boosting Saudi Arabia’s radar systems following crippling drone and cruise missile attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure in September, which Washington blames on Iran.

The chief of the US Central Command and France’s defense minister, whose countries have taken divergent approaches to Iran, also touted rival versions of maritime missions to protect Gulf waters at a Bahrain security forum on Saturday.

More than two months after the biggest assault on Saudi oil facilities, Riyadh and Washington have yet to provide concrete proof linking Iran to the attack while Saudi Arabia has provided few details about how it is addressing gaps in its air defenses.

Tehran denies involvement in the strikes that initially halved the crude output of the world’s top oil exporter and led the United States to send thousands of troops and military hardware to the kingdom.

“We continue to refine information on the attack against (Saudi state oil firm) Aramco and that will be released principally through the Saudis,” said General Kenneth McKenzie, who oversees operations in the Middle East and South Asia.

“We are working with the Saudis to increase the networking of their systems. That will make them better able to defend against this type of threat,” he told reporters.

McKenzie said boosting the US military presence at Prince Sultan Air Base south of Riyadh, in addition to large bases in Qatar and Bahrain, would “complicate an adversary’s ability to target you”.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly said Paris was separately sending Riyadh “a robust package of advanced warning”, including radars, to confront low-altitude attacks.

“It will be in Saudi Arabia in the coming days so it will be operational very, very rapidly. But there is an analysis to be done in order to better identify how to fill the gap,” she later told reporters.

“COOLING TEMPERS”

The September 14 strikes heightened regional tensions following attacks on tankers in Gulf waters and other Saudi energy assets in the summer that Washington also blamed on Iran, a charge Tehran denies.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told the IISS Manama Dialogue that Riyadh was consulting with its allies about what measures would be taken against Iran after the investigation concluded. He gave no timeframe.

The event focused mostly on the Iranian threat but included no representatives from Tehran. It underscored differences between Western allies over how to deal with Iran since the United States quit a 2015 international nuclear pact.

France wants to salvage the agreement, which Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied Gulf states oppose for failing to address Iran’s ballistic missiles program and regional interference.

“We have seen a deliberate, gradual U.S. disengagement,” Parly said, citing also U.S. inaction over a 2013 chemical attack in Syria and this year’s downing of an American drone by Iran.

She said it was time to “reinvent deterrence”, mentioning France’s efforts to form a European-led maritime mission, unassociated with the U.S. maximum pressure campaign on Iran, to help “cool down tempers”.

Parly told reporters the initiative could start early next year and around 10 European and non-European governments would join pending parliamentary approval.

Only Albania, Australia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom have so far joined the US-led International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC), which McKenzie said would “shine a spotlight on nefarious activity”.

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International Relations say there is no confirmation that South African citizens are part of a ship’s crew that has been kidnapped off the coast of Equatorial Guinea.

In a statement the government of Equatorial Guinea says earlier this week a supply vessel called ‘ The Warden ‘, belonging to Exxon Mobil, was attacked by pirates.

The navy was deployed to assist and found seven of the 15 crew members hiding aboard the vessel.

Eight crew members had been kidnapped by the pirates.

The government says the crew consisted of citizens from South Africa, the Philippines, Serbia and Cameroon.

The statement did not confirm if any South Africans were among those kidnapped.

DIRCO spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele says: “I can confirm that as DIRCO we are aware of the incident that took place in the coast of Equatorial Guinea. We are working with the government of Equatorial Guinea to establish if indeed South Africans are involved so that we can be able to assist with the consular services.”

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Bolivia’s interim government filed a criminal complaint on Friday against former President Evo Morales for alleged sedition and terrorism, the interior minister said, as authorities began probes of his allies that they accuse of corruption and fomenting unrest.

Interim President Jeanine Anez, a former senator and opponent of Morales, has faced a wave of demonstrations by his supporters since taking office in a power vacuum last week.

Morales and his vice president stepped down under pressure from security forces and anti-government protesters on Nov. 10,amid reports of irregularities in the Oct. 20 election.

Morales fled to Mexico and says he was toppled in a coup. At least 29 have been killed in clashes since he resigned.

Interior Minister Arturo Murillo said he asked the public prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into Morales, based on audio in which, from Mexico, Morales allegedly directed plans for road blockades in Bolivia to destabilize the interim government.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the audio,which was played to reporters at a news conference earlier this week.

Morales’ former health minister, Gabriela Montano, called the audio “fake.”

Murillo told journalists outside the prosecutors’ office in La Paz: “The evidence is clear. We’ve presented it.”

Morales could not immediately be reached for comment. He said on Twitter that authorities should be investigating the death of protesters instead of going after him on the basis of what he described as fake evidence. It was unclear if prosecutors would investigate Morales or eventually file charges.

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Blocking roads is a common form of protest in Bolivia and much of South America, though intense blockades by Morales supporters in the past week have cut off fuel and food to some cities.

Authorities have transported some 1 400 tonnes of food by plane in less than a week to the cities of La Paz, El Alto, Oruro and Sucre due to blockades, Productive Development Minister Wilfredo Rojo told journalists on Friday.

Anez pleaded with protesters to end an ongoing blockade at a natural gas plant that supplies La Paz. Eight people died in clashes after the military forcibly cleared access to it briefly on Tuesday.

“I ask for reflection from brothers who are carrying out this unnecessary blockade,” Anez said at the presidential palace on Friday.

“We’re all Bolivians. You can’t punish the city of LaPaz.” Anez reiterated that she will only stay in power long enough for there to be new elections.

But her critics say her cabinet have overstepped the bounds of a caretaker government by making changes to foreign policy and threatening to punish Morales’allies.

Under Anez, authorities have alleged that several of Morales’ allies have taken part in criminal activity, including the former culture minister, the former vice president’s brother, and the vice president of his Movement to Socialism (MAS) political party.

Murillo said on Friday that he was also asking prosecutors to investigate Morales’ former presidency minister, Juan Ramon Quintana, for sedition and terrorism for allegedly telling a news outlet that Bolivia would become a modern Vietnam.

Reuters could not verify the accuracy of his quoted comments or immediately reach him for a response.

A lawyer affiliated with opponents of Morales, Jorge Valda, said he planned to ask authorities to issue an arrest warrant for Morales’ 25-year-old daughter, Evaliz Morales, on Tuesday for alleged sedition and corruption.

Evaliz could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Nigeria’s economic growth rose to an annual rate of 2.28% in the three months to the end of September after the production of its main export commodity, crude oil, rose to a more than three year high, the statistics office said on Friday.

The economy, Africa’s largest, expanded by 0.17% in the previous quarter and 0.47% in the same period a year earlier. The country has struggled to shake off the effects of a 2016 recession that ended the following year.

Growth rates in Nigeria have been bouncing back this year, though from a low base, after the oil sector, which accounts for around two-thirds of government revenue and 90% of foreign exchange, shrugged off its negative performance in the first quarter.

Crude production in the third quarter stood at 2.04 million barrels per day, its highest since the first quarter of 2016, the statistics office said.

Friday’s data release comes ahead of the central bank’s announcement of its main interest rate on Tuesday and days after the statistics office said annual inflation was at a 17-month high in October.

Nigeria recorded the highest quarterly growth in September since the last quarter of 2018 as the oil sector rose 6.49%. The non-oil sector rose 1.85% during the period.

Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered, welcomed the oil sector performance but added that it raises concerns that Nigeria could come under more pressure to adhere to its OPEC quota.

The non-oil sector is showing signs of recovery but is inadequate for Nigeria’s potential, Khan said.

“Given the hoped-for faster passage of the 2020 budget and efforts to boost private sector credit, we expect more of a recovery to emerge all-round in 2020,” Khan said.

The central bank has been trying to boost growth by forcing commercial banks to lend to stimulate the economy but it has also kept benchmark interest rates high and liquidity tight in a bid to support the currency and wade off inflation.

The central bank has forecast growth of 3% for 2019 while the IMF expects the year to finish off at 2.3%.

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U.S. Navy warships twice sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea in the past few days, the U.S. military told Reuters on Thursday, at a time of heightened tension between the world’s two largest economies.

The busy waterway is one of a number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Earlier this week during high-level talks, China called on the U.S. military to stop flexing its muscles in the South China Sea and adding “new uncertainties” over democratic Taiwan, which is claimed by China as a wayward province.

The U.S. Navy regularly angers China by conducting what it calls “freedom of navigation” operations by ships close to some of the islands China occupies, asserting freedom of access to international waterways.

The littoral combat ship Gabrielle Giffords traveled within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef on Wednesday, Commander Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, told Reuters.

The destroyer Wayne E. Meyer challenged restrictions on innocent passage in the Paracel islands on Thursday, Mommsen said.

“These missions are based in the rule of law and demonstrate our commitment to upholding the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations,” she said.

China’s military confirmed on Friday that the two U.S. warships had sailed through the contentious waterways and said it tracked the passage of the American ships.

“We urge (the United States) to stop these provocative actions to avoid any unforeseeable accidents,” the spokesman for China’s Southern Theatre Command said in a statement. “China has indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and its surrounding area.”

China claims almost all the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands. However, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea.

The United States accuses China of militarising the South China Sea and trying to intimidate Asian neighbors who might want to exploit its extensive oil and gas reserves.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper met Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe earlier this week for closed-door talks on the sidelines of a gathering of defense ministers in Bangkok.

Wei urged Esper to “stop flexing muscles in the South China Sea and to not provoke and escalate tensions in the South China Sea,” a Chinese spokesman said.

Esper has accused Beijing of “increasingly resorting to coercion and intimidation to advance its strategic objectives” in the region.

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King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Tuesday appointed former Interior Minister and ambassador to France Chakib Benmoussa as head of a committee to tackle social inequality and poverty, the Royal Palace said in a statement.

The King said the committee was intended to design a “new development model” to reform areas such as education, health, agriculture, investment and taxation.

The monarch acknowledged that infrastructure achievements of recent years, such as highways, high-speed railways, ports, renewable energy and urban development had not been felt by all sectors of society.

Morocco is 123rd in the UN Human Development Index, as rural areas lag behind in access to education and health services.

The number of poor Moroccans, or those at risk of poverty, stands at nearly 9 million, or 24% of the population, according to a World Bank Report last month.

Due to a decline in agricultural output, the International Monetary Fund expects Morocco’s economy to grow 2.8% in 2019 after 3% in 2018, a rate that cannot create enough jobs in a society where one in four young people is unemployed.

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Some economists say there’s room for the Reserve Bank to lower the repo rate shortly.

They say this is because inflation is at its lowest in eight years.

On Wednesday, Statistics South Africa announced that the headline consumer price index fell to 3.7 per cent in October, down from 4.1 per cent the month before.

In September, the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent following a 25 basis points cut.

The South African Reserve Bank’s policy committee is meeting on Thursday for the last time in 2019.

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A senior US diplomat told lawmakers on Wednesday that President Donald Trump expressly ordered him and others to help pressure Ukraine into investigating a political rival of the president, providing some of the most significant testimony to date in the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry.

In testimony that also put Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the center of the Ukraine controversy, US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said Pompeo was “fully supportive” of the efforts to push Ukraine into carrying out two investigations that would benefit Trump politically at home.

Sondland, a wealthy hotel entrepreneur and Trump donor, said he worked with Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine issues on “the president’s orders,” further detailing Trump’s active participation in a controversy that threatens his presidency.

Giuliani’s efforts earlier this year to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son “were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit” for the Ukrainian leader, Sondland said, using a Latin term meaning to exchange a favor for another favor.

Sondland described Trump in May telling him along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and then-US special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker to work with Giuliani on Ukraine policy at a time when the former New York mayor was working to get the Ukrainians to do the politically motivated investigations.

“Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and I worked with Mr. Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the United States,” Sondland told the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which is spearheading the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry.

“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani. Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So we followed the president’s orders,” Sondland said.

Giuliani held no formal US government job.

The inquiry focuses on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukraine’s Zelenskiy to carry out two investigations. One involved Biden and his son Hunter, who had worked for Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The other involving a debunked conspiracy theory promoted by some Trump allies that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.

Trump is seeking re-election in 2020. Biden, the former vice president, is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination to face Trump.

POMPEO FOCUS

The investigation could lead the House to approve formal charges against Trump – called articles of impeachment – that would be sent to the Republican-controlled Senate for a trial on whether to remove him from office. Few Republican senators have broken with Trump.

Sondland’s comments cast more light on the role of Pompeo, a close Trump ally who has declined to defend State Department witnesses who have been attacked by Trump and other Republicans for cooperating with the impeachment inquiry.

Sondland provided correspondence showing that he and Pompeo communicated about his effort to get Zelenskiy to commit to undertake investigations as a way to free up $391 million in security aid for Ukraine that Trump had withheld. The aid eventually was provided in September.

“All good. You’re doing great work; keep banging away,” Pompeo told Sondland in early September, according to email correspondence cited in his testimony.

“Everyone was in the loop,” Sondland said.

Sondland said that even as late as Sept. 24 – the same day the House launched its impeachment inquiry – Pompeo was directing Volker to speak with Giuliani.

Democrats have accused Trump of using the frozen aid and Zelenskiy’s desire for an Oval Office meeting as leverage to pressure a vulnerable US ally to dig up dirt on political adversaries.

Sondland said Trump never told him directly that the aid to Ukraine was conditioned on Ukraine announcing an investigation.

“I think we know now … that the knowledge of this scheme was far and wide and included among others Secretary of State Pompeo as well as the vice president,” said Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, referring to Vice President Mike Pence.

Schiff said Pompeo and Trump “have made such a concerted and across-the-board effort to obstruct this investigation and this impeachment inquiry. They do at their own peril.”

Career U.S. diplomats have portrayed Sondland in their testimony as a central figure in what became a shadow and “irregular” Ukraine policy operation, undercutting official channels and pressing Kiev to investigate the Bidens.

Sondland said he was “adamantly opposed” to any suspension of aid to Ukraine because Kiev needed it to fight against Russian aggression.

Trump has denied wrongdoing, called the inquiry a witch hunt and assailed some of the witnesses including current White House aides.

Sondland was tapped as Trump’s envoy after he donated $1 million to the president’s inauguration. In October, Trump called him “a really good man,” but after Sondland’s amended statement to House investigators this month the president told reporters at the White House, “I hardly know the gentleman.”

According to Reuters/Ipsos polling, 46 percent of Americans support impeachment, while 41 percent oppose it.

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At least 10 workers were killed and 35 wounded in an air strike that hit a biscuit factory in Libya on Monday in what a senior UN official said was a possible war crime.

The majority of those killed in the strike in Wadi Rabea, 21km from the centre of Tripoli, were apparently migrants, while two were Libyans, UN Libya envoy Ghassan Salame told the Security Council.

Pictures posted by authorities showed several wounded people in bloodstained civilian clothes lying on beds in ambulances or medical facilities.

Tripoli has been under attack since April from forces loyal to east Libya-based commander Khalifa Haftar. The offensive by his Libyan National Army (LNA) quickly stalled, and both sides have used drones and fighter jets to carry out air strikes amid sporadic fighting.

LNA air strikes have often hit civilian areas in Tripoli. Officials in eastern Libya contacted by Reuters on Monday said they had no information about an air strike by their forces.

“Regardless of whether the attack deliberately targeted the factory or was an indiscriminate attack, it may constitute a war crime,” Salame said.

He also accused the LNA of causing civilian casualties by increased air strikes with unguided bombs, according to a transcript of his speech released by the UN mission in Libya.

The LNA had conducted more than 800 drone strikes, Salame said, while forces allied to the Tripoli government had carried around 240.

Salame said there had been intensified artillery fire directed at some Tripoli districts, although he did not name the LNA. He blamed a recent rise in violence on the growing use of mercenaries and private military contractors.

He did not identify these forces but diplomats and Tripoli officials have said that hundreds of Russian mercenaries have been fighting on Haftar’s side since September.

More than 200 civilians have been killed and 128 000 displaced in the conflict, Salame said.

Since 2014, Libya has been split between rival political and military groupings based in Tripoli and the east.

Haftar has received backing from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia, as well as some support from Western powers. The Tripoli government has been backed by Turkey.

Last week the United States called on the LNA to halt its offensive on Tripoli, warning against Russian interference.

Salame said Germany’s attempts to hold a conference to bring an end to the conflict in Libya were continuing with another preparatory meeting planned for Wednesday. He did not give a date for the main event.

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Senior US officials told impeachment investigators in Congress on Tuesday they were concerned by President Donald Trump’s effort to get Ukraine to investigate a political rival, with one White House official calling it a shock.

The third day of impeachment hearings conducted by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee marked the first time that officials from inside the White House publicly expressed their misgivings about a freewheeling pressure campaign that now threatens Trump’s presidency.

The White House’s top Ukraine expert, wearing his Army dress uniform, said Trump had made an “improper” demand of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July 25 phone call that has become the centerpiece of the Democratic-led impeachment probe of the Republican president.

“Frankly, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was probably an element of shock that maybe, in certain regards, my worst fear of how our Ukrainian policy could play out was playing out,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman said.

As he was testifying, the White House’s official Twitter account his judgment – undermining the same man the administration appointed to lead its European affairs brief at the National Security Council.

Two other senior White House aides, Jennifer Williams and Tim Morrison, also said during Tuesday’s hearings, which spanned 11-1/2 hours, that they were concerned by the political nature of that phone call.

Williams told the hearing that Trump’s call with Zelenskiy was unusual and inappropriate because “it involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter.”

Morrison said he did not see anything improper in the call but was concerned that its contents could leak, hurting bipartisan support for Ukraine. “I wanted access to be restricted,” he said.

During that call, Trump asked Zelenskiy to carry out two investigations that would benefit him politically, including one targeting Joe Biden, the former vice president who is a leading Democratic presidential contender to face Trump in next year’selection, and his son Hunter Biden.

The other involved a debunked conspiracy theory embraced by some Trump allies that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.

Kurt Volker, a former US envoy to Ukraine, said he believed those two concerns were “conspiracy theories.” He added that allegations of corruption involving Biden and his son, who was a director of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, were “not credible.”

Trump has said his call with Zelenskiy was “perfect,” while Republican lawmakers criticize the impeachment process as unfair.

“What’s going on is a disgrace, and it’s an embarrassment to our nation,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s a big scam.”

Republican US Representative Francis Rooney told reporters: I don’t think there’s been a crime proven yet. But I want to see what happens. There’s still a lot of water to go down this creek.”

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The South African Energy Forum has called on Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to make public all documents and video interviews related to the interview and assessment process regarding the appointment of the new Eskom CEO.

The Forum which is comprised of experts from Energy, Civil Society and the Business Community described the process, which ended in the appointment of Andre De Ruyter, as flawed and questionable.

In an open letter, the South African Energy Forum (SAEF) questions how a candidate with no energy or utility experience could be appointed.

It also expressed concern about De Ruyter’s relationship with Finance Minister Tito Mboweni who is a former Nampak chairperson.

De Ruyter will be leaving his post as Nampak CEO to take over at Eskom on January 15, 2019.

Click related video below:

Absolutely shocking a guy with no @Eskom_SA experience who destroyed Nampak is appointed Eskom CEO🤡 what is wrong with PG @DPE_ZA. No to #Andre @SAFTU_media @_cosatu @Numsa_Media @NEHAWU @BlackBCouncil @BEPA_SA @BMFNational @LandNoli @pulemabe @_AfricanSoil @MYANC @KhuselaS pic.twitter.com/ZET6p0eibL

— SAEF (@SAEF_ZA) 18 November 2019

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Businesswoman Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe has challenged her detractors in Botswana to produce evidence that she was involved in money laundering in that country.

This comes after two major banks in South Africa told her that they are not aware of any account where she is a signatory and that was used for money laundering.

Motsepe-Radebe has been fingered by the state in Botswana to be co-signatory to the accounts alongside a Botswana citizen.

The businesswoman has called for an investigation into the matter.

Click on the video below for more on the story: 

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Former Business Unity South Africa (Busa) CEO Jerry Vilakazi says unravelling corruption allegations and recouping of lost funds should not be limited to the Gupta family.

Vilakazi was speaking after Monday’s testimony by British lawmaker Lord Peter Hain at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

Hain, an anti-Apartheid activist, raised questions over international banking institutions turning a blind eye to alleged corrupt activities by the Gupta family and high ranking officials.

He name dropped a number of international banks, claiming that they helped the Guptas hide the source of their funds, by allowing them to transfer illicit funds into accounts.

Vilakazi says, “It looks to me, and it is the point that Peter is raising, sometimes you get a sense that there is a global gentlemen’s agreement. The reality is that we have all stood up at this point because when we saw and read and heard what the Guptas are alleged to have done. It sparked an anger that suddenly has made us stand up. But even beyond this environment we are still not looking beyond the Guptas.”

WATCH BELOW:

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Indian police said they briefly detained around 50 students in New Delhi on Monday as protests against proposed fee hikes at a prestigious public university entered a second week and degenerated into clashes.

Police erected barricades around the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as hundreds of students marched down the campus seeking the rollback of a hike in annual fees they say would make education there unaffordable for many.

JNU has produced some of India’s most prominent academics and has a history of left-wing activism. Many at the university have also rallied to accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of curbing free speech.

On Monday, students tried moving out of the campus towards central Delhi, but baton-wielding police pushed them back. One student had blood pouring down his face after a scuffle.

“This isn’t just about JNU, we need to reject fee hikes at all government universities,” said protester and languages student Kushal, saying many would be unable to finish their studies if the proposed raises went through.

Another languages student Shivraj Jagtap said university costs would be roughly tripled, reaching 12,000 rupees ($167) per month for some.

VICE-CHANCELLOR URGES RETURN TO CLASSROOM

With students refusing to leave until detainees were released, a police official in Delhi, M.S. Randhawa said they were being freed later on Monday.

University authorities could not be reached for comment on Monday’s unrest or the fee hike proposals.

But vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar on Sunday urged students to return to university for approaching exams.

The government’s Human Resource Development ministry, which oversees public universities, has appointed a three-member panel to address the student concerns.

The protests began at JNU a week ago, with some students injured when police fired water cannons to disperse them.

Nearly half of the university’s students come from families with incomes of less than 144,000 rupees ($2,018.22) annually, according to the JNU Students Union. That means many students from poor and low-income families would not be able to afford the new costs, the union says.

The students are also protesting against what they say are “regressive” hostel rules on clothing and timings and are demanding that the vice-chancellor be sacked.

“The vice-chancellor isn’t meeting us,” said Abhimanyu, a Ph.D student at JNU who like most preferred not to give a last name for fear of being identified.

“The administration hasn’t spoken to us even once.”

Students at other Indian universities have expressed solidarity with JNU colleagues, though the protests have not spread.

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The last remains of 157 people killed aboard an Ethiopian Airlines plane in March were interred at the crash site this week, farmers and families told Reuters, but some relatives were upset they had been unable to take part in the ceremony.

Nadia Milleron, whose daughter Samya Stumo was killed, said an email was sent to some families — but not all — notifying them of the burial just two days before it happened.

“By the time the burial took place I was just wiped out; I was just glad they were doing it. I was tired of it not being done,” said Milleron. “But a lot of people didn’t feel like that. They hadn’t been aware of what was happening.”

Ethiopian Airlines did not return calls seeking comment about why some families were not told in advance.

Families have been begging the airline to fill in the crater left by the March 10 crash, which still contained remains too small to be recovered.

Milleron said on Saturday that locals had been burying remains exposed by rains in small mounds of earth. She herself found a bone at the site when she visited Ethiopia to collect her daughter’s remains in October, which she told the airline about in an email.

The force of the impact meant no complete bodies were recovered; partial remains were tested for DNA and finally returned to families last month.

As the burial took place on Thursday, a US embassy representative present kept Milleron updated by text: “Now they’re laying the coffins down, now they’re putting earth on them…”

“I became a blubbering mess,” she said.

Milleron said the lack of notice of the burial ceremony had raised tensions between the families and Ethiopian Airlines.

Representatives of the airline and of Boeing and some embassy employees were there. The Boeing representatives were on a prearranged trip to discuss community projects, Milleron said.

Boeing manufactured the 737 MAX 8 plane, which nosedived shortly after take-off. A preliminary investigation pointed to a malfunctioning anti-stall system known as MCAS, which was also implicated in the crash of a Lion Air plane in Indonesia five months earlier. All 189 people on board that flight were killed.

Tesfaye Mulatu, a farmer near the crash site, said he had seen a helicopter arrive and cars bring caskets on Thursday. The crater left by the impact has been filled in, he said.

“Now, the area looks a football field,” he told Reuters by telephone.

Some bereaved families have formed associations and hope to use funds from Boeing to build a memorial. The manufacturer will make $100 million available, with half going to families and half to projects in local communities.

“We continue to offer our deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610 and we are committed to helping those affected by these tragedies,” Boeing spokesman Chaz Bickers said.

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Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has advised that government – as a South African Airways shareholder – not get involved in matters relating to the strike faced by the national carrier.

Employees affiliated to NUMSA and the Cabin Crew Association are striking over a wage dispute, among other issues. BLSA CEO, Busisiwe Mavuso, says the SAA board is accountable for the ailing state-owned enterprise.

“It is the Board that is charged with the duties to ensure that these organisations are run the way they are supposed to be run. It is the Board that is going to be held accountable. So shareholders should never get involved in the issues of salary disputes and the issues of operations… they have nothing to do with them. When you look at SAA, this is an ailing organisation that is at the brink of collapse. Demanding that Board signs off the 8% increase to employees doesn’t generate enough income from operations. I think is tantamount to the Board being derelict of their duties,” says Mavuso.

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Sri Lanka’s former wartime defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa established a lead over his main rival in a presidential election, months after deadly militant attacks in the island, early results showed on Sunday.

Millions of Sri Lankans voted on Saturday to elect a new president to lead the country out of its deepest economic slump in over 15 years, following Easter Sunday suicide bombings that sapped investor confidence and hurt its tourism sector.

Rajapaksa, who oversaw the military defeat of Tamil separatists under his brother and then president Mahinda Rajapaksa 10 years ago, has promised strong leadership to secure the island of 22 million people, the majority of whom are Sinhalese Buddhists.

With a quarter of total votes counted, Rajapaksa had 48.2 percent, while his main rival government minister Sajith Premadasa stood at 45.3 percent, the election commission said.

Rajapaksa held a commanding edge in the Sinhalese-dominated southern part of the island, as well as postal ballots. Premadasa, who campaigned on policies to help the poor, was leading in the north where minority Tamils are predominant.

The election commission has said it expects results to be clear by late Sunday and a new president will be sworn in within a day.

Tamil political parties are strongly opposed to Rajapaksa, who has faced allegations of widespread human rights violations of civilians in the final stages of the war against the separatists in 2009.

Rajapaksa and his brother deny the allegations.

Muslims, the other large minority group, say they too have faced hostility since the April attacks on hotels and churches in which more than 250 people were killed. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

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