03/13/18

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Donald Trump & Rex Tillerson

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked U.S. Secretary of State, Mr Rex Tillerson.

The President made this announcement in a tweet on his official Twitter handle @realdonaldtrump
He also immediately announced Director of CIA, Mike Pompeo as the successor.

“Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job!

“Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!” Trump tweeted.

While details of the sack are not made available by the President, he had also announced the appointment of Gina Haspel as the head the Central Intelligence Agency — the first woman tapped for the post.

The news of the shocking sack is coming a day after Tillerson visited Nigeria.

Tillerson was received at the presidential villa in Abuja on Monday by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Rex Tillerson & Buhari

Tillerson in his maiden tour of Africa had also visited Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya since last Wednesday.


President Donald Trump after announcing the departure of his top diplomat Rex Tillerson said the current CIA Chief Mike Pompeo will replace him.

He praised Pompeo, a former US army officer and congressman who led the CIA for nearly 14 months, as “the right person for the job at this critical juncture.”

“He will continue our program of restoring America’s standing in the world, strengthening our alliances, confronting our adversaries, and seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Trump added.


The reshuffle comes days after the spectacular announcement of a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whose date and details have yet to be determined.

Trump called for Pompeo to be swiftly confirmed in the role — as his administration heads into the high-stakes talks.

He had scant words of praise for Tillerson, who was travelling in Africa when Trump made the snap decision last week to accept an invitation to meet Kim.

After the announcement, Tillerson suspended his schedule on grounds he was “unwell” and eventually cut short his trip to fly back to Washington.

“I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service,” Trump said. “A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.”

The former Exxon CEO has had a rocky tenure as the top US diplomat and had long been rumoured to be about to be pushed out.

Tillerson was repeatedly forced to deny he had fallen out with Trump — vowing to remain in post despite a sensational report that he once dubbed the president a “moron.”

A respected figure in the oil business, the 65-year-old Texan’s tenure at the State Department drew scorn from Trump’s opponents, from former diplomats and from the Washington policy elite.

During his time in post, he was faced with an extraordinary array of foreign policy challenges, from North Korean nuclear threats to Russian subversion to attacks on US diplomats in Cuba.

But his efforts were often overshadowed by Trump’s un-diplomatic style and his streams of taunting tweets stirring international tensions.

AFP/LR News

Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Parirenyatwa hospital’s accident and emergency ward in Harare deserted following Zimbabwean doctors strike. 

Zimbabwean doctors at public hospitals have gone on strike and will not return to work until the government meets their demands for better pay and working conditions, a spokesman for a doctors’ unions said on Tuesday.
The action is the first major labour dispute under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced Robert Mugabe in November and whose biggest challenge is fixing Zimbabwe’s economy ruined by decades of severe mismanagement.
Cash shortages mean banks are forced to limit withdrawals, unemployment remains above 80 percent and the government still struggles to pay workers on time which prompted frequent public sector strike actions under Mugabe.
“The main issue we have raised currently is that it does not make sense for us to continue working in hospitals that do not have any drugs or sufficient equipment,” said Mxolisi Ngwenya, spokesman for the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), which represents more than 1,000 members.
Junior doctors in Harare went on strike on March 1. As of Monday the labor action had spread to include all public hospitals in the country, Ngwenya said.
The government had not, as agreed four years ago, increased on-call allowances for doctors to $10 an hour from the current $1.50, and has failed to fulfill other promises for better compensation and working conditions, Ngwenya said.
Junior doctors, who earn a basic monthly salary of $329 before allowances, according to Ngwenya, were yet to get duty-free vehicles as agreed previously.
In neighboring South Africa, which attracts the most skilled labor from Zimbabwe, including health workers, junior doctors on internship earned the equivalent of $2,834 last year, according to Business Day newspaper.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said the government was resolving some of the grievances by the doctors and urged them to return to work while waiting for the outcome of a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning.
In the past, the government has deployed army medics to work at major public hospitals when junior doctors went on strike.
At Parirenyatwa, the largest public hospital in the capital, Reuters witnessed hospital staff turning away some patients.
A nurse who only identified herself as Eunice said they were overwhelmed without the junior doctors. Most senior doctors run private practices.
“I was told to go to a (council) clinic because they don’t consider my condition an emergency,” said Langton Sithole, 39, who said he fractured his arm when he fell from a bicycle.
Reuters/LR News
Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

The West African Food Market Programme (WAFM) and the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) have called for speedy implementation of the ECOWAS common currency to reduce the challenges of currency exchange.
The call was part of a communiqué issued at the end of a capacity building workshop organised for Nigerian traders and exporters of agricultural produce on Customs Regional Trade Procedures in Abuja on Tuesday.
It was signed by Mr Ken Ukaoha,  the President of NANTS.
The communiqué said that the workshop was aimed at equipping Nigerian traders and transporters with regional trade procedures and requirements, which include documentation to ease the movement of agricultural produce across the borders.
“There is need to fast-track the subject of ECOWAS common currency in order to give traders the opportunity of reducing the challenges of currency exchange, which distorts commercial transactions,” the communiqué stated said.
It called for electronic paper filing to reduce numerous documentations and human contacts that lead to illicit payments and unnecessary delays of goods.
The communiqué called for proper and adequate protection of goods in transit along the corridors for health reasons and compliance with standards as well as correct documentation.
It noted that with the huge population of Nigeria, only about 2,300 enterprises and 7,000 products were registered under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).
“This is very low in comparison with the overall population of businesses in Nigeria, and so reflects an abysmal performance in the country’s efforts at benefiting from regional trade.
“The need for popularisation of ETLS and regular sensitisation of the traders and enterprises is, therefore, required as well as continuous capacity building to improve the knowledge of traders on customs procedures,” it stated.
The communiqué advocated improvement in quality and standards of produce in Nigeria in order to take advantage of the opportunities available at the regional market.
In that regard, it added that a harmonised regional seed Council and traceability was required.
The communiqué stressed the need to move the ETLS desk from Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Industry, Trade and Investment.
It stated that the signing of the collaborative agreement with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) should be finalised to bolster training on regional trade procedures. (LR News)
Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the Amended Electoral Bill sent for his signature by the National Assembly.

The bill provides for the Presidential election to come last after National Assembly and Governorship elections.

Buhari notified the Senate about his action in a letter dated March 3, 2018, which was read by the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki during plenary.

The president said he withheld his assent to the bill because the amendment to the sequence of the elections in Section 25 of the Principal Act might infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC.

He stated that the section guaranteed the INEC to organise, undertake and supervise all the elections as provided in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution.

”The amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates, unduly limits rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process.

“The amendment to section 152 (325) of the Principal Act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over Local Government elections.

“Please accept Mr Senate President the assurances of my highest consideration,” the president stated.
While the Independent National Electoral Commission put the presidential election as the first to be held during the general election, the National Assembly wants it held last.
Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

An FCT High Court, Maitama on Tuesday ordered the police to pay N3 million to one Kingsley Efobi, for violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty.
Efobi had on May 10, 2017, filed a suit against the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, for violating his fundamental right.
Justice Jude Okeke, delivering judgment in the suit filed by Efobi, held that there was no basis for the court to disbelieve the evidence of the applicant, which was not contradicted by the respondents.
He held that in order to ensure that the applicant was protected from further violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty, in facts of this matter, the court would be minded in line with the provision of 46 (1) of the Constitution.
“Accordingly, an order of perpetual injunction is granted, restraining the respondents, their agents or servants from harassing the applicant on account of the subject matter of this suit.
“The respondents jointly and severally are ordered to pay to the applicant a sum of N2 million damages for breaking his right to personal liberty.
“N1million for violating his right not to be subjected to inhuman treatment,’’ the judge held.
Okeke also ordered that the respondents jointly and severally return to the applicant a sum of N16, 500 being the money extorted from him by the officers of the respondent.
He also ordered that the respondent pay the applicant N50,000 for emerging successful from the suit.
Okeke held that the order by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to the applicant, to remove his sandals, sit on a bare floor, seized his handset was violation of his right to dignity of his person, even his arrest and detention.
Efobi noted that he was forced to write an undertaking for the payment of the debts he owed.
“There is no evidence by the respondents showing that they arrested and detained the applicant upon a reasonable suspicion of having committed criminal offence.
“It is unconstitutional and, therefore, unlawful,’’ the judge said.
Okeke said that the applicant and two others were traders at Wuse Modern Market and deal in bedspread and allied materials.
The applicant noted that the bedspread dealers bought in large quantities on debt from one Madam Normal, who supplied them from Aba.
It was the dealer who reported the applicant to the police sometimes in May 2015, for debts he owed her. (LR News)
Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

The Catholic Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo is mobilising the to force President Joseph Kabila to organise elections and relinquish power.
The Church is also upping the ante against Kabila for continuing to stay put despite the expiry in December 2016 of his second term.
The huge rally is also to remember those killed in last month’s protest.
In a statement, the church said the Catholic church in Kinshasa is spearheading what it hopes would be a huge rally on March 16 at ‘Notre Dame du Congo’ Cathedral as a focal point for the struggle against Kabila’s prolonged presidency.
According to the new constitution adopted in 2006, Kabila’s presidency was supposed to expire on December 20, 2016, ten years after he was elected for his first five-year term in office.
The electoral authority in DRC had announced in September 2016 that elections would not be held until early 2018.
Since then talks have focused on building a census over the handling of the elections which the constitution disqualifies Kabila from contesting.
“We have our heroes for democracy. They have a name, a face, an age. They are dead, they are alive. They will continue to demand a rigorous and active citizen participation to avoid falling back into a new dictatorship that will cost human lives,” a statement by the church said.
The church is referring to people who died on February 25 during a mass demonstration, including young Rossy Kadima who was killed in Lemba district in Kinshasa.
The church also urged the public to continue with their civil disobedience by ringing bells in parishes across the country at 9pm every Thursday, with others encouraged to use whistles, car horns and saucepans.
President Joseph Kabila
In addition to their campaign of non-violence, the church also undertook to launch “diplomatic overtures” targeting DRC’s partners through the Congolese Diaspora, to ratchet up pressure on Kabila.
At the end of three huge marches between December 31, 2017 and February 25, 2018, the church claimed a series of “victories” from its civil disobedience aimed at unmasking “a dictatorship hiding behind democracy.”
The church also claimed it has conquered its own fear, transferring it to “our political and military leaders, the police and other security operatives.”
Another victory it is claiming is the moral authority it commands from its congregations, a trait admired by the rest of the world.
The decision to bring further pressure to bear on the government by the church comes after Bishop Fridolin Ambongo was inducted in his position as Coadjutor Archbishop of Kinshasa.
Bishop Ambongo replaces the retired Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo as head of the Catholic church in Kinshasa. APA/LR News
Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

A bride-to-be in Arizona has so much to worry about after her wedding day turned out to be a sad day following her arrest en-route to the solemnization venue, for allegedly Driving Under the Influence (DUI).
Marana police said 32-year-old Amber Young triggered a three-car collision that sent someone to a hospital with minor injuries at about 10:30 a.m., on Monday.
An officer suspected Young, who was wearing a white, floor-length dress, was driving impaired.
She was handcuffed and taken to a police station.
The bride submitted to a blood test and signed a criminal citation for DUI before she was released to her fiancee, according to Sgt. Chriswell Scott of the Marana Police Department.
“This could’ve turned out way worse than it did,” Scott said.
“It’s supposed to be the happiest day of her life, and this just goes out as a reminder as to why you should never drive while impaired.”
It was not clear if Young made it to her wedding on time.
Continue reading

at
Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.
Japan Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe 

Support for Japan’s Prime Minster Shinzo Abe has continued to dip over cronyism and cover-up scandals.
Pressure is mounting on Abe who may seek a re-election in October.
Abe and his finance minister Taro Aso have been on the ropes in recent days following revelations that key documents relating to a controversial land sale were doctored before being sent to MPs.
Aso was forced to fend off opposition calls to resign on Monday after admitting his ministry altered 14 sets of documents sent to parliament.
The scandal surrounds the 2016 sale of state-owned land to a nationalist operator of schools who claims ties to Abe and his wife Akie.
The sale was clinched at a price well below market value amid allegations that the high-level connections helped grease the deal.
Abe and Aso both apologised “deeply” over the affair amid signs the PM’s popularity is suffering six months before he stands for re-election as head of the ruling LDP party.
A new poll released by public broadcaster NHK Tuesday showed support for the Abe government dropped to the lowest since he won a resounding re-election in October.
His support fell by two percentage points to 44 percent from last month, NHK said, while a separate survey in the Yomiuri Shimbun daily showed support down six percentage points to 48 per cent.
There’s no end in sight to the scandal for Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso
Commentators said the survival of Aso, a close Abe ally and deputy prime minister, was key to the leader’s own ability to stay in the job.
Aso has been at the centre of the Abe administration since its start in December 2012, playing a key role in the prime minister’s trademark “Abenomics” economic policy.
“If Aso leaves the government, the cabinet would surely be destabilised,” the Yomiuri Shimbun said Tuesday.
Adding to the sense of political crisis in Japan, Aso hinted he might skip a Group of 20 finance ministers’ meeting next week in Buenos Aires, saying his attendance “depends on the situation of the current parliament”.
Continue reading
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)