Month: October 2016

The government’s spokesman said “there’s already a letter from the prime minister” on France’s candidacy for European Banking Authority (EBA) host.
France is in addition vying to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA), also based in London, spokesman Stephane Le Foll said.
Several EU member states are interested in hosting the EMA, established in 1995 and responsible for authorising the marketing of new medicines in the EU, including Italy and Sweden.
In France, the cities of Lyon, Lille and Strasbourg are interested.
On Tuesday the Irish department of finance announced Ireland would bid to host the EBA, responsible for harmonising and integrating banking supervision across the EU member states.
Austria and Germany are also in the race.
The EBA will have to relocate to another state within the EU once Britain leaves the EU following the Brexit referendum vote on June 23.

Hundreds of people including Brazilian football greats gathered Wednesday at a Rio de Janeiro cemetery to pay their last respects to “eternal captain” Carlos Alberto, skipper of the 1970 World Cup champions.
Crowds of fans decked out in Brazilian yellow and green swarmed Carlos Alberto’s casket as it was carried into Iraja cemetery, in a working-class neighborhood on the city’s north side.
Carlos Alberto, who led a legendary team including Pele to the 1970 World Cup and scored one of the competition’s best-ever goals, died Tuesday of a heart attack. He was 72.
After a 12-hour wake at the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation, his coffin — draped in a Brazilian flag and covered in flowers — was loaded onto a fire engine and transported to the cemetery, where more than 300 fans were waiting.
“Rest in peace, captain,” said a large sign held up by one mourner dressed in the colors of Fluminense, the Rio club where Carlos Alberto launched his career.
The national anthem was played as the casket arrived, concluding with a long salvo of applause.
The burial brought together fans with family members and football greats such as Cafu — who, like Carlos Alberto, was a right-back and captain of a World Cup-winning squad, in 2002.
“He was our eternal captain, he was our reference, on and off the pitch,” Cafu told Brazilian news site UOL, calling him “one of the best of all time.”
Carlos Alberto’s son Alexandre Torres wore a Brazil jersey with a photo of his father celebrating his iconic goal in the World Cup final against Italy in Mexico City in 1970 — the one that sealed Brazil’s 4-1 win and third world title.
Also at the wake were Brito, Carlos Alberto’s teammate from the 1970 squad, and Tite, the current coach of Brazil.

The team of glittering talent ended up as businessmen, trying to get into politics, running charities or met a tragic end like Everaldo who died in a car crash. Here is what happened to the team of 1970:
Felix
Much-criticised before the 1970 World Cup finals, goalkeeper Felix was well protected by his defence and emerged as one of the heroes from the 4-1 victory in the final over Italy. He went on to win more than 40 caps for Brazil and five national titles with Fluminense. He later became a salesman of cars and fridges and also lectured about football. A heavy smoker, he died of emphysema aged 74 in 2012.
Carlos Alberto
Just leading Brazil in their greatest triumph and scoring the magical fourth goal in the final has ensured that Carlos Alberto, who died of a heart attack on Tuesday aged 72, will go down in history.
The right-back left Santos in 1974 to return to his first club Fluminense, then joined Flamengo and saw out his career at the New York Cosmos with Pele. After working as a coach in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria and Azerbaijan, he retired in 2005 and became a television pundit. He is now known as “the eternal captain”.
Hercules Brito
The tall centre-back had a short temper which he controlled for the World Cup finals. He earned 45 Brazil caps between 1964 and 1972 and played for about 10 different clubs — including Vasco da Gama, Flamengo and Corinthians as well as in Canada and Venezuela before retiring in 1979 at the age of 40. He has since stayed out of the public eye.
Wilson Piazza
Piazza played for Cruzeiro between 1964 and 1979 and 47 times for Brazil with the 1970 World Cup his highlight though he was also at the 1974 finals. Brito later built up a chain of petrol stations and tried to get into local politics.
Everaldo
A tough and talented left-back, though he had been an international since 1967, coach Mario Zagallo gave Everaldo his big chance at the 1970 finals. A lynchpin for his Gremio club, Everaldo won 24 caps up to 1974 and was only on the losing side once. He tried to enter politics upon retiring but was killed in a car crash with his wife and a daughter in October 1974.
Clodoaldo
Clodoaldo inspired Brazil’s revival when they fell behind to Uruguay in the semi-final but went on to win 3-1. He also dribbled past four Italians in the build-up to Carlos Alberto’s much-remembered strike in the final. He played at Santos with Pele. Since stopping playing Clodoaldo has dabbled in property while remaining a Santos director and advisor to the national team.
Gerson
Though Carlos Alberto was the captain, Gerson was the midfield mastermind, known as “The Parrot” because he never stopped talking on the pitch. He was also one of the greatest passers in international football. Gerson’s father and uncle were professional footballers and he won 70 caps for Brazil including at the 1966 and 1970s World Cups. After giving up he started an institute to help poor children — including with their football skills — and is still a radio and television analyst.
Rivelino
The left winger was famous for his moustache and his dribble — the ‘elastico’ — that confounded opponents during a 20-year career that included 92 internationals and almost 700 appearances for Corinthians, Fluminense and Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. He scored three goals at the 1970 finals including an incredible bending free-kick against Czechoslovakia. Rivelino also played in the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals and is still a football commentator with fellow legend Zico.
Pele
For many, the greatest footballer ever with his swerving skills. He scored four goals in the 1970 finals, produced one of the greatest saves ever from England’s Gordon Banks in another game and tried an audacious lob from the halfway line against Czechoslovakia that only narrowly failed. He was named player of the tournament in his fourth and final World Cup. After finishing his career with the New York Cosmos, Pele has been a sports minister as well as an ambassador for the United Nations and corporate big names. Now 76, he has been ailing in recent months, in and out of hospital, and walks with a cane.
Tostao
The final piece of Brazil’s feared attack, Tostao almost missed the 1970 finals because of a detached retina suffered when hit in the face with a ball. But he formed a brilliant partnership with Pele before retiring in 1973 at the age of 26 because of another eye problem. Tostao is now a doctor but also a respected sports journalist.
Jairzinho
The only player to have scored a goal in every match of a World Cup finals, Jairzinho was Brazil’s top scorer in 1970 with seven goals in six games. He scored 33 goals in 81 internationals and played more than 400 games for Botafogo before moving to Marseille in France. After football, he tried to become mayor of Rio but his candidacy was cancelled because he did not pay the fees. He also trains young footballers and is credited with discovering Brazil’s Ronaldo in the 1990s.

Spain’s acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned Wednesday of a tough road ahead as he prepares to take power again at the head of a minority government with little support.
In a speech to parliament as he submits himself to a confidence vote that should see him re-appointed to lead Spain again next week, he promised to be “open to dialogue” as he acknowledged his government would have to negotiate “every day”.
“I don’t know what difficulties will emerge in the path of the future government, no doubt they will be many, and big,” he said.
“My party and myself are willing to confront them and put up with sacrifices that may be necessary.”
Until last weekend, Spain was heading towards unprecedented third elections in less than a year after a rollercoaster 10 months that saw the country go through two inconclusive polls.
Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) won them both times, but without enough seats to rule alone — a far cry from 2011 when the acting premier won an absolute majority.
Spain’s political fate had hinged on whether the Socialists would allow a Rajoy-led minority government to rule and avoid more elections — and on Sunday they voted to do so.
After weeks of in-fighting, they voted to abstain in a parliamentary confidence vote on a PP government — which will give it enough traction to get through the vote.
In line with post-election protocol, a first vote will be held Thursday.
The Socialists have decided to cast their ballot against him in this vote, which means he will not go through.
They will then abstain in a second and final vote, expected Saturday.
Socialist party (PSOE) lawmaker Isabel Rodriguez said that if it were up to them, they “would vote ‘no’ to Rajoy eternally”.
But “it isn’t about us, the PSOE, it’s about the country and the country needs to end its (political) blockage.”
But with just 137 of the 350 seats in parliament, Rajoy’s government will be faced with unprecedented opposition by parties who criticise the corruption and austerity that marked his first term.
Rajoy has countered that under his leadership, Spain has returned to growth and unemployment has dropped — although at 20 percent it is still the second highest in the eurozone.
First and foremost on his to-do list will be to get the 2017 budget approved, under EU scrutiny as Spain seeks to reduce its deficit.
The caretaker government has said at least five billion euros ($5.4 billion) in budget cuts will be needed — a measure that is unlikely to gain the approval of opposition parties.

Taking a sledgehammer to Donald Trump’s Walk of Fame star, a vast glass ceiling for Hillary Clinton on Election Night and fur flies on Fox News: here is a rundown of telling moments from the campaign trail as the White House race hits its fevered final stretch.
Hillary Clinton has had the hardest time whipping up passion on the campaign trail — but you wouldn’t know it from the rapturous welcome the Democrat received in Florida on her 69th birthday.
Arriving for a rally at Palm Beach State College on Wednesday, Clinton was greeted by a cheering crowd of around 400, waving flags and balloons and half-singing, half-yelling “Happy Birthday.”
Drowned out by the deafening noise, a beaming Clinton — who hits the last two weeks of the race with a lead over her Republican rival Trump — mouthed “thank you” to the crowd.
The previous evening, Clinton was sung “Happy Birthday” by a singer and Mexican back-up band — during a stint on a Spanish-language TV show — before being presented with a four-tier cake with a replica White House on top.
“What gets better than this?” asked Clinton — who later stole a few moments off the trail to take in a pre-birthday concert by pop icon Adele.
Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been having a rough time.
It has been smeared with excrement, daubed with a swastika and in July a street artist erected a tiny barbed-wire-topped wall around it — in a critique of Trump’s vow to build a wall on the Mexican border.
In the latest affront, the star was vandalized Wednesday with a sledgehammer and pickaxe — by a man who said he wanted to auction it for the benefit of women allegedly mistreated by the real estate mogul.
The vandal, who identified himself as James Lambert Otis, walked up to the star before dawn dressed in construction overalls and began hacking away at the gold lettering displaying Trump’s name.
Otis said he originally intended to remove the entire star from the sidewalk — but was unable to lift the paving slab.
“It was very difficult. The stone was like marble — hard to get through,” he said.
Clinton’s ambition extends beyond stopping Trump’s star rising — she has some sledgehammer work of her own to do: smashing the metaphorical “glass ceiling” that invisibly holds women back.
And if she manages it, she’ll celebrate the feat under a real and very large glass ceiling– that adorning the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.
The 840,000-square-foot center covers six blocks of downtown Manhattan and bills itself as America’s busiest business venue — all under a vast glass canopy.
As such, it would already be a fitting spot for a vote watch party for the former New York senator, who — despite being a former first lady of Arkansas and the nation, has made the Big Apple her home and headquarters.
But headline writers seized on the metaphorical implications of the roof, recalling that after her failed 2008 White House run, Clinton consoled herself that her votes had “made 18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling.
For Vice President Joe Biden, sexual assault is no joking matter.
At a recent campaign stop for Clinton, Biden hit out hard at Trump over a 2005 video of him bragging about groping women with impunity — saying he wished he could “take him behind the gym” to knock sense into him.
Trump declared himself ready and eager to rise to the challenge at a rally Tuesday night.
“Did you see Biden wants to take me to the back of the barn?” he told supporters.
“Ohhhh,” Trump said with mock fear. “Some things in life you can really love doing.”
“You know when he’s Mr Tough Guy? When he’s standing behind a microphone by himself,” he taunted.
Trump publicly buried the hatchet in his long-running feud with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly with a face-to-face interview in May.
But late Tuesday, one of his campaign surrogates — former House speaker Newt Gingrich — took it up again with a vengeance, accusing Kelly of being sex-obsessed in an exchange that went viral.
Complaining about the media attention given to the stream of allegations of sexual misconduct facing Trump, Gingrich charged: “You are fascinated with sex and you don’t care about public policy.”
An astonished Kelly replied she was “fascinated by the protection of women and understanding what we’re getting in the Oval Office and I think the American voters would like to know.”
She then gave him a rather icy sendoff, encouraging Gingrich to “spend some time working” on his “anger issues.”
Trump seemed to feel his ally came out well from the exchange.
“Congratulations, Newt, on last night,” he said Wednesday in Washington before a crowd at his new hotel, including Gingrich. “That was an amazing interview. We don’t play games, Newt. We don’t play games.”

Kei Nishikori dominated Paolo Lorenzi 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 to reach the Swiss Indoors quarter-finals on Wednesday, with Asia’s top player feeling his way back after a series of recent fitness problems.
The Japanese third seed, who played the 2011 final at the St Jakobshalle against Roger Federer, needed more than an hour to stamp his authority on his 38th-ranked Italian opponent in the first set before sprinting to the win in 98 minutes.
Nishikori, who had to quit his home Japan Open at the start of the month with a glute muscle problem, began his recovery process at his base in Florida as he prepares to finish the season on a high and then play the World Tour Finals in London next month.
The 26-year-old finished with two breaks of the Lorenzi serve while never facing a break point on his own service.
“Today I played better than in the first round,” the winner said. “There were so many break chances in the first set, but I was not able to convert. It could have been 4-0, 5-0.
“In the second I started playing better, I got more aggressive. I’m happy with my tennis today.
“With the slower court and heavier balls, I’m always expecting long rallies here. In the second set I was playing much better tennis.”
Two-time champion Juan Martin del Potro continued his run of form after winning Stockholm, with the champion in Sweden starting his Swiss week with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of injured Robin Haase.
The Dutchman received treatment on a thigh after just three games but soldiered on to the loss.
Del Potro, now ranked 42nd as his comeback gains pace, is playing at his best against after dealing with nearly two seasons of wrist problems.
“I feel my game is slowly getting better. I’m playing well after Stockholm, which was great for my game,” said the former US Open champion.
The Olympic silver medallist added: “I never gave up when I was injured, I wanted to return and I hope to try and win a third title here.”
Del Potro broke once in the opening set and after trading breaks twice with Haase in the second, he earned a 5-4 lead and served out the match a game later.
He next plays David Goffin who is in the chase for a spot at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Argentine Guido Pella advanced as French seventh seed Richard Gasquet retired injured trailing 6-2, 2-1.
American eighth seed Jack Sock eliminated Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-3 while Moscow champion Pablo Carreno Busta won an all-Spanish showdown over Fernando Verdasco, 7-5, 6-3.
Germany’s Mischa Zverev defeated US teenager Taylor Fritz 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.

Venezuela’s opposition ratcheted up the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro at mass protests on Wednesday, announcing plans for a new march and general strike.
Opposition leaders called a 12-hour general strike for Friday and vowed to use their legislative majority to issue a declaration holding the elected socialist accountable for his handling of a severe economic crisis.
“We are going to notify Nicolas Maduro that the Venezuelan people declare that he has abandoned his post,” the speaker of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, said to cheers from hordes of protesters in Caracas.
He said his side would deliver that ruling in a march on November 3 to the presidential palace.
Jesus Torrealba, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), also drew thundrous applause when he announced the general strike.
“Everyone stay home,” he urged Venezuelans.
Opposition activists put the protest turnout at 1.2 million in the capital, the largest in a day of nationwide demos.
Maduro held his own rally with thousands of supporters outside the presidential palace.
The government maintains that since 1999 there has been no constitutional clause about dereliction of presidential duties, or about the legislature voting to launch what would amount to impeachment proceedings. The opposition disagrees.
Clashes broke out at protests in other parts of the country.
Three people were shot in the northwestern city of Maracaibo, said Alfredo Romero, head of Venezuelan rights group Foro Penal.
In all, at least 20 people were injured and 80 detained nationwide, the group said.
Venezuela is home to the world’s largest oil reserves but has plunged into a deep recession due to falling crude prices — leading to shortages and ever louder calls for Maduro to go.
His opponents accuse him of a “coup” after authorities last week halted a bid for a referendum on removing him from power.
The president says it is the opposition that is trying to stage a coup.
Analysts have warned of a risk of violence in the volatile country.
Clashes at anti-government protests in 2014 left 43 people dead.
The opposition’s vow to march on the presidential palace next week raised the tone in the power struggle.
The palace was the scene of a short-lived opposition coup attempt in 2002 against Maduro’s late mentor, Hugo Chavez.
The head of the armed forces, Vladimir Padrino, who is also Maduro’s defense minister, declared “unconditional loyalty” to the president on Tuesday.
Maduro held a meeting of his National Defense Council on Wednesday.
In televised comments at the gathering, he called for “political dialogue and peace in Venezuela.”
The council comprises top officials including the defense and security ministers.
Maduro calls the economic crisis a capitalist conspiracy. The opposition blames his economic management.
A recent poll found that more than 75 percent of Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro.
On Tuesday, lawmakers voted to stage a “political and criminal trial” against him.
But the Supreme Court has overruled the
National Assembly’s decisions ever since the opposition majority took control in January.
Maduro’s opponents say he controls the courts and the electoral authorities and has used them to block the referendum.
“The MUD has the political capital, but the government has the power,” political scientist Luis Salamanca told AFP.
The MUD says it will only agree to talks if the government respects the constitutional right to a referendum and frees its imprisoned activists and leaders, among other demands.
The opposition says the authorities have jailed more than 100 “political prisoners,” including Leopoldo Lopez, leader of the most hardline anti-Maduro movement.
But the MUD, which tends to the center-right, is a fractious coalition united mainly by shared hatred of Maduro.
Its divisions were clear at Wednesday’s marches.
Protesters heckled one top leader, Henrique Capriles, a state governor known as a moderate.
“Coward! Get off the stage!” shouted some. Others called for an immediate march on the presidential palace.
Capriles urged patience and strategy.
One protester, Lucia Russo, a 33-year-old graphic designer, left in disgust when leaders declared a one-day general strike. She thought it should have been indefinite.
“It’s not worth marching for nothing,” she said.

After her courtside haircut on Monday, Svetlana Kuznetsova has won a legion of new fans but drawn the ire of her hairstylist.
“I took the headband off (after the match) and I was like, ‘it looks weird’. So I made a picture and I sent it to my hairdresser, sorry.
“He was like, ‘I (am) going to kill you’.”
The Russian raised eyebrows Monday when she gave herself a courtside haircut during a break in a difficult game against WTA Final defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska and went on to win the match.
She later said her long braid had been getting into her eyes and asked the umpire for a large pair of scissors, which she used to chop at her blonde locks.
A video of the impromptu trim posted on her Instagram page garnered 21,000 views in two days, the most viewed clip on her page.
“It doesn’t look so good, but if I tell you the truth, I didn’t dry it and look at it properly because I don’t want to be really depressed.”
Asked by a fan what a movie of her remarkable past week be called, she deadpanned: “Life of A Hustler.
“Or Workaholic.”

Battling rock-bottom approval ratings six months ahead of France’s election, embattled President Francois Hollande marked the centenary of the birth of his 1980s predecessor Francois Mitterrand with an appeal for party unity.
“To the left, to all of the left, he bequeathed a clear legacy — to come together to govern and to govern to reform and change the country,” Hollande said under architect I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre museum in Paris, one of the symbols of Mitterrand’s 14-year presidency.
For Hollande, 62, the event risked drawing unflattering comparisons with the only other Socialist to lead France in the last 60 years.
While just four percent of the French public approve of Hollande’s presidency, according to a poll published Tuesday, Mitterrand romped to re-election in 1988 with 54 percent of the vote.
But the homage to Mitterrand offered a rare moment of unity for the left, with many of the ministers and aides from his 1981-95 rule gathering at the Louvre.
After ousting Nicolas Sarkozy as president in 2012, Hollande has seen his time in office clouded by stubbornly high unemployment and a series of devastating terror attacks, and has suffered some of the lowest approval ratings of a post-war president.
Drawing parallels with himself, Hollande paid tribute to Mitterrand’s determination in the face of adversity.
“Do we need reminding of the criticism, the challenges, the insults, the outrages Francois Mitterrand was subjected to?” Hollande said.
“The mark of Francois Mitterrand, if we are to remember one thing only, was his will — a fierce, unshakable, limitless will,” that allowed him to unite the left and then the whole of France, Hollande said.
He is waiting until early December to say whether he will even run in next year’s presidential race, though Tuesday’s unemployment figures, showing the biggest jobless fall in 20 years, gave him a boost.
Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll admitted Hollande’s popularity was “at the very bottom” but the president took heart from the jobless numbers, saying it was the “fruit” of his policy and confirmed a trend that began at the start of the year.
Hollande is battling to maintain unity within the Socialist party two weeks after the publication of a tell-all book of interviews with two journalists left him mounting a desperate damage-limitation exercise.
In the book, Hollande took aim at lawyers, judges, the French national football team and his former partner.
The revelations unleashed criticism even from within the ranks of his own party, with some openly questioning his willingness to run again.
But despite Hollande’s dismal ratings, his core supporters have not yet given up hope.
“You don’t do politics to be popular but to get results in education, security and the fight against unemployment,” an aide to the president told AFP.

NATO is making good progress in building up the battalions being deployed in eastern European allies badly rattled by a more assertive Russia, alliance head Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday.
NATO leaders endorsed plans at their Warsaw summit in July to rotate troops into the three Baltic states and Poland to reassure them they would not be left in the lurch if Russia was tempted to repeat its Ukraine intervention.
“I am actually very inspired by the meeting today because so many nations made very, very firm and concrete decisions and announcements of their contributions to the four battalions,” Stoltenberg told reporters at a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels.
Such commitments were “a transatlantic demonstration of rock solid support for our allies,” he said.
At this rate, deployment was on track for early next year, as planned, he added.
Britain, Canada, Germany and the United States agreed in July to lead the battalions of some 1,000 troops each, with the other 24 NATO allies expected to provide different components — transport, communications and medical units.
Stoltenberg said Albania, Italy, Poland and Slovenia would contribute to the Canadian battalion deployed in Latvia.
Germany’s battalion in Lithuania will be supported by Belgium, Croatia, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway.
Denmark and France will help Britain’s unit in Estonia, while Romania and Britain again will contribute to the US-led battalion in Poland.
Stoltenberg said this showed that the battalions will be “robust, multinational and combat ready.”
Their deployment will send “an unmistakable message — NATO stands as one. An attack on one ally will be considered an attack on all,” he said.
The secretary general, a former Norwegian premier, noted that the allies were also meeting commitments on a Romanian-led unit which will help bolster security in the Black Sea region in the same way as in the Baltics.
He repeated that NATO was responding in a measured fashion to a Russian military build-up and increased activity around NATO’s borders.
The alliance would take all the measures it deemed necessary but also remained open to dialogue with Moscow, which was especially important at times of tensions, he said.

German auto giants Audi, who captured the famed Le Mans 24-Hour Race on 13 occasions, said Wednesday they were pulling out of the World Endurance Championship to concentrate on Formula E.
Le Mans organisers said they had been braced for Audi’s decision to pull the plug but described it nevertheless as a move greeted with “emotion”.
Audi chairman Rupert Stadler confirmed: “We?re going to contest the race for the future on electric power.
“As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi?s technological spearheads, have to be even more so.”
Formula E, the world’s first electric racing series, only started in 2014 and the technology is still evolving — even in a race that only lasts 50 minutes, drivers have to swap cars halfway because their batteries won’t go the distance.
Audi won Le Mans 13 times between 2000 and 2014 but the last two years saw them usurped by Porsche.
“It was with emotion that we all learned this morning about Audi?s decision to withdraw from endurance racing,” said Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, which organises the Le Mans race.
“Although prepared for this, we regret the departure of a major figure in endurance racing for a different adventure.”

Six medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics were among nine competitors to fail drug tests as part of an International Olympic Committee campaign of retesting stored samples, it was announced Wednesday.
The list of athletes to have their medals stripped includes three weightlifters — Ukraine’s Olha Korobka (second in the women’s 75kg category), Belarus’s Nastassia Novikava (third in the 53kg women) and Andrei Rybakou (second in the men’s 85kg).
Wrestlers Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan (second in the 74kg men) and Kazakhstan’s Taimuraz Tigiyev (second in the 96kg men) were also snared.
The sixth medallist was Russian 3000m steeplechase bronze winner Ekaterina Volkova.
All six tested positive for the steroid turinabol, said the IOC.
Three non-medallists also tested positive — Azerbaijan weightlifter Sardar Hasanov, Cuban long jumper Wilfredo Martinez and Josephine Onyia, a 100m hurdler from Spain.
The IOC has been reanalysing stored samples from athletes of the Beijing and 2012 London Games as part of efforts to clean up athletics.
The latest batch takes the total of positive tests to 60 from 1,243 reanalysed samples.

Towers of black smoke hung over the “Jungle” on Wednesday as fires raged through the ramshackle migrant camp in dramatic scenes — but some holdouts were still refusing to give up their dream of reaching Britain.
The fires — said by migrants and officials alike to have been started deliberately as operations to dismantle the camp began — reduced the Jungle’s flimsy shelters to charred husks.
Volunteers carried gas canisters out in a desperate bid to stop the blaze from spreading further as firefighters battled the flames.
But the fires advanced to the very edges of the camp, swallowing one tent after another and sending migrants fleeing with their meagre possessions in their arms.
“It’s a disaster,” said Rami, a 27-year-old from Sudan with a rucksack on his back. “My tent was burnt to the ground. Thank God I made it out in time.”
Others saw the inferno as a chance to have some fun of sorts — many took selfies in front of the flames, one kicked a football into the fire and a young Sudanese man got a bottle of cooking oil from a neighbour to try to set fire to a large green tent.
The squalid, lawless Jungle, a launchpad for countless attempts by migrants to reach Britain hidden in lorries or trains crossing the Channel, became a long-running sore point in UK-France relations.
By clearing it and sending the majority of its 6,000 to 8,000 residents to processing centres around France, the authorities hope to erase what had become a symbol of Europe’s failure to deal with its migrant crisis.
But migrant slums near Calais have been cleared twice before — Sangatte in 2002 and the original Jungle in 2009 — only for them to be rebuilt.
Rami fears the French authorities may not accept his asylum application and he will end up back in another version of the Jungle — and that there will be others like him.
“I will end up living on the streets. I think that will be the fate of many of us,” he told AFP.
“That’s why I believe, even though this Jungle is burning down, that some people will eventually return here — where at least there’s a chance of trying our luck in Britain.”
The French authorities expected the camp to be cleared by Wednesday evening, but some are determined to stay and keep trying to cross the Channel.
As Wednesday wore on, an eerie quiet descended on the camp as the acrid stench of burnt plastic hung in the air, making it hard to breathe in places.
Among the holdouts was Aziz Yaacoub, a 25-year-old political science graduate from Sudan.
“Till now we have only been used as pawns: Britain pressures France to close the camp and France pressures us,” he told AFP.
“I am not leaving. France is better than Sudan, sure, but I know I am not welcome here. I don’t want to leave the camp and end up sleeping on the streets of Paris.
“We left our nations behind us in flames, only to find the Jungle go up in flames too.”
On the Chemin des Dunes road, near the Jungle, a dozen or so men from Darfur looked on as a shack burned.
Though they had their bags at their feet, they have no intention of taking one of the buses to the shelters around France — even with riot police making their presence felt nearby.
“I want to go to England, that’s my dream,” said 24-year-old Adam. “If the police come, it’s not a problem.”

Several dozen armed men belonging to an Islamic State-linked group on Wednesday seized control of a small port in Somalia’s Puntland region, local residents said.
“We are getting information that Qandala has fallen this morning,” said Mohamed Muse, an elder in the town of Bossaso, which lies about 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Qandala.
“Armed Islamist militiamen who we believe are connected with the Islamic State organisation stormed the town and told people they are in control,” he said.
Amaq, the IS news agency, reported that Qandala, located on the Gulf of Aden opposite Yemen, had been taken by “Islamic State fighters”.
Several local officials said it had fallen to armed Islamists and that part of the population had fled.
“Fishermen near Qandala are reporting the town is being taken and they are not fishing today,” said Abdiweli Adan, a resident of the nearby village of Karin.
“The Islamist fighters have taken position alongside the coast and several locations inside town but we don?t know who exactly they are,” he added.
Government officials in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northern Somalia, did not comment on the attack.
While the Al-Qaeda affiliated Shabaab group is active in much of the south and centre of Somalia, it barely has a presence in Puntland.
In March, a few dozen Shabaab fighters travelled by sea from southern Somalia and briefly took control of several coastal villages in Puntland before being killed or captured by the region’s security forces.

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said players in the squad named Wednesday who do not make the Test with world champions New Zealand on November 5 should get some game time later in the month.
The 51-year-old New Zealander — who committed himself to Ireland up to the 2019 World Cup on Monday — named an enlarged 34-man squad to meet up on Sunday ahead of their departure to the United States for the All Blacks game in Chicago.
However, utility back Keith Earls, while named in the squad, won’t make the trip as earlier on Wednesday he received a two-week suspension for a dangerous tackle in Munster’s European Champions Cup match with Glasgow Warriors last Saturday.
“Selections were difficult as always; trying to balance form, fitness, experience, combinations plus assess those players returning from injury or those carrying minor knocks or strains,” said Schmidt.
“With more than half the squad likely to be involved in Celtic League action this weekend, plus the need to factor in the travel and fatigue from the Chicago fixture, there are also a number of players on standby who are likely to be involved during the first two weeks of the November Series.”
The Irish will play the All Blacks a second time in Dublin on November 19th followed by World Cup finalists Australia a week later — they begin their Dublin Tests against Canada on November 12th.
Squad
Finlay Bealham (Connacht), Rory Best (Ulster/capt), Joey Carbery (Leinster), Sean Cronin (Leinster), Ultan Dillane (Connacht), Keith Earls (Munster), Tadgh Furlong (Leinster), Craig Gilroy (Ulster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ulster) Robbie Henshaw (Leinster) Billy Holland (Cork Constitution), Paddy Jackson (Ulster), Rob Kearney (Leinster), Kieran Marmion (Connacht), Luke Marshall (Ulster), Jack McGrath (Leinster), Luke McGrath (Leinster), Jordi Murphy (Leinster), Conor Murray (Munster), Sean O’Brien (Leinster), Peter O’Mahony (Munster), Jared Payne (Ulster) Garry Ringrose (Leinster), Donnacha Ryan (Munster), John Ryan (Munster), Jonathan Sexton (Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster), Devin Toner (Leinster), James Tracy (Leinster), Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Simon Zebo (Munster)

Nigeria’s currency scarcity remains a nightmare that won’t go away, with even Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote feeling the pain.
The West African country’s economy has been hammered by the global crash in oil prices — worth 70 per cent of its revenue and the bulk of its dollars — and ongoing rebel attacks on oil infrastructure in the southern swamplands.
But the response to the naira’s slump has made matters worse.
In February 2015, the central bank fixed the naira at 197-199 per dollar in an attempt to stop its rapid plunge.
To protect its foreign reserves, Nigeria banned the importation of many goods, ranging from toothpicks to rice.
Propping up the naira proved costly for the import-dependent country. Facing the imminent depletion of its foreign reserves and double-digit inflation, Nigeria was forced to abandon the peg in June this year.
Yet the country is still suffering the consequences of the peg as it wrestles to overcome an enduring currency scarcity.
A wave of multinational firms, including South African hotel and gaming group Sun International, have left Nigeria, citing forex concerns.
Recently Nigerian billionaire Dangote, a manufacturing tycoon with a range of companies spanning cement to flour, has reduced staff because of “operational costs”.
“This year has been a very challenging one for us as a business. The unavailability of foreign exchange, coupled with an unprecedented hike in the exchange rate has resulted in increased costs across the organisation,” Dangote warned in an October letter.
Once Africa’s poster child for booming growth, Nigeria announced in August it was in recession.
Business leaders say if Dangote is hurting, then there’s a serious problem.
“It’s unfortunate,” Muda Yusuf, head of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told AFP.
“Not many businesses have access to the official forex window to source for their requirements to bring in the needed raw materials for production,” Yusuf said.
Part of the problem is that it appears the naira is again being held at an artificially high rate, explained Yusuf, who says that the currency should be allowed to “fully liberalise.”
Officially Nigeria’s naira is 305 to the dollar, but today it is trading up to 460 on the black market, where most businesses get their cash to bring in raw materials and supplies.
“A flexible exchange rate regime will encourage inflows,” he said.
“If this is done, the supply side of forex will improve and there will be more dollars to go around.”
The painful impact of Nigeria’s forex crisis can be clearly seen among international airlines.
Last week, Persian Gulf airline Emirates and Kenya Airways said they would suspend flights to the Nigerian capital Abuja from October 30 to November 15.
However, both carriers added that they would continue to fly to Lagos, the country’s commercial hub.
The announcement comes after US carrier United and Spanish airline Iberia halted their Nigerian operations earlier in the year, citing limited inability to repatriate their profits because of unavailability of forex.
Other international operators complained that Nigeria owed them hundreds of millions of dollars from ticket sales as the government holds on to the dollars to boost its reserves.
Analysts say it’s only a matter of time before the naira is devalued again.
“Although there remains heavy opposition to further devaluation within the Nigerian administration, we believe that macroeconomic realities will force some further downwards movement in the naira this year,” BMI Research said earlier in October.
With investors shying away, Nigeria is struggling to implement a record budget designed to stimulate growth.
Nigeria normally produces 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), but output dropped to a low of 1.4 bpd this year as a result of rebels attacking pipelines, with no signs the militants are ready to lay down their arms.

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Bangladesh should not be content with just playing well but must rather try to win Test matches, opener Tamim Iqbal said on Wednesday ahead of the second Test against England in Dhaka.
The home side were highly praised for the thrilling contest in the first Test in Chittagong, which they lost by 22-run on Monday to go down 1-0 in two-Test series.
England had to wait until the morning of the fifth day for their victory when all-rounder Ben Stokes took two wickets in three balls in one over to seal the win in thrilling fashion.
Chasing a target of 286 runs on a difficult wicket, Bangladesh required 33 runs on the final day with two wickets in hand.
But they could just add 10 runs to their overnight 253-8 before Stokes? two-wicket burst ended their innings at 263.
?From media to common people everybody praised us, said we have played well,? said opener Tamim, who made highest 78 runs for the side in the first innings.
?Now, if we remain content with this, I don?t think we will be able to make progress.
?At the end, we lost and we should have that disappointment in us and that will carry us forward.
?If we move forward thinking that our performance earned substantial amount of appreciation, it won?t be good.
?Certainly there were some positives as we had competed for five days but that was not enough.?
Tamim added Bangladesh must also look ahead rather than dwell on the last match.
?Five years from now, you will find in the scoreboard that we lost the game,? he said.
?There will be no mention that we played well. So, we should rather focus on the next game and try to win it,? he said.
Tamim, who averages 59.20 against England in Tests, said they will go to Friday?s second Test in Dhaka?s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium more confident as they were able to shrug off their shakiness in the first Test.
The England series is Bangladesh?s first Test series in nearly 15 months since they hosted South Africa in July-August last year.
Bangladesh barely showed any rust in the first Test, which they dominated in patches before England clawed their way back into the contest.
?I don?t think there will be any shakiness since we played such a competitive game,? said Tamim.
?Maybe if we could not play well after such a long gap it would have influenced our game. Now, we are better prepared and more confident,? he said.

Former Spain goalkeeper and Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta is set to be named as the new sporting director of French giants Marseille on Thursday, Spanish press said.
Marseille, who were taken over by American tycoon Frank McCourt last week and then named Rudi Garcia as their new coach, parted company with Belgian sporting director Gunter Jacob on Wednesday.
They have announced a press conference for Thursday, when Zubizarreta is set to be appointed at the Velodrome.
Zubizarreta, who carried out the same role at Barcelona from 2010 to 2015, is set to sign a three-year contract, according to Catalan daily La Vanguardia.
Now 55, “Zubi” won 126 caps for Spain during a distinguished playing career in which he represented Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona and Valencia.

Secret peace talks between Mozambique’s opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama and EU mediators were called off at the weekend after fighting broke out between the military and ex-rebel fighters, local media reported Wednesday.
It was hoped that the meeting would contribute towards negotiations that opened in May to end a simmering conflict between the government and the former Renamo rebel group.
“We had agreed (with President Filipe Nyusi) that two mediators would come… to meet me,” Dhlakama told the independent weekly Canal de Mocambique.
But Dhlakama, who has been holed-up in the central Gorongosa mountains for a year now, said the military increased its presence near the bush location of the meeting on the morning of the talks.
“There was a violent shootout. I even heard the explosions from here,” Dhlakama said.
“So I called (chief mediator Mario) Raffaelli to tell him that armed forces had come to ambush me.”
He said he was “convinced” that the ruling Frelimo party “wanted to capture me during the meeting”.
“It is obvious they have a plan to kill me,” he added.
Raffaelli, the European Union-appointed mediator, declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
A European diplomat, who asked not to be named, confirmed to AFP that two mediators had gone to Gorongosa for a meeting with Dhlakama.
“(But) Dhlakama told them to turn back at the very last moment,” said the diplomat.
A new round of peace talks resumed last week despite the killing of an opposition negotiator earlier this month.
On Tuesday separate talks between the mediators and each of the feuding sides continued as usual.
While both sides have agreed in principle to changing the constitution to allow Renamo figures to be appointed as provincial governors, the talks have yet to result in a ceasefire.
Renamo, which previously waged a 16-year civil war that ended in 1992, has refused to accept the results of 2014 elections when it was beaten once more by the ruling Frelimo party — in power since the former Portuguese colony’s independence 40 years ago.
Renamo’s armed wing has in recent years staged a string of deadly attacks in central Mozambique as it fights to make its voice heard and to secure a greater share of power.

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry said Wednesday there was no way he could see his former boss Arsene Wenger filling the vacant England manager’s position.
Wenger, who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary as manager of Arsenal, has been strongly linked with the job following the sacking of Sam Allardyce last month.
“You can never say never but I personally don’t see it happening,” Henry told reporters in India’s commercial capital Mumbai.
Allardyce was dismissed following the publication by the Daily Telegraph of controversial comments made to undercover reporters.
He was secretly filmed giving advice on how to circumnavigate transfer rules and mocking England predecessor Roy Hodgson.
Gareth Southgate is in temporary charge with England’s Football Association on the hunt for a full-time successor.
Wenger’s contract with the Gunners is due to expire at the end of this Premier League campaign and he’s known to have several keen admirers at the FA.
But Henry, who won two top-flight league titles with Arsenal under Wenger, believes his fellow Frenchman may be lukewarm about the idea of coaching the English national team.
“I think he answered himself recently when he said that the England manager should be English. That’s his own words,” said the former striker.
“I said recently that Arsene likes to be on the field on a daily basis and when you’re coach of a national team you don’t get to do that,” Henry added.
Wenger has been on the receiving end of severe criticism by some fans frustrated by Arsenal’s failure to win the Premier League since 2004.
But Henry, Arsenal’s all-time top goal scorer, warned supporters to enjoy the 67-year-old while he is still at the club.
“Be careful what you wish for because when he’s not going to be around people are going to realise what he was doing at the time,” said the World Cup winner, now an assistant coach with Belgium.
Arsenal sit joint top of the league on 20 points with Manchester City and Liverpool after nine games. Chelsea and Tottenham are just a point back.
“It looks like finally things are going the right way,” said Henry, on a promotional tour of India for sports brand Puma.
“It would be great if in his 20th season in charge he can win the title. But are they going to do it? The competition is massive,” he added.

Valencia were fined and warned on Wednesday after a section of fans pelted celebrating Barcelona players with a bottle, but the Spanish champions were also criticised for their conduct.
Luis Suarez and Neymar were hit by a plastic bottle thrown by the Valencia fans as Barca celebrated a last-gasp 3-2 win at Mestalla on Saturday in what had been a bad-tempered La Liga encounter.
A disciplinary committee of the Spanish Football Federation fined the home side 1,500 euros ($1,600) and said a repeat could result in a stadium closure.
But it also had harsh words for Barcelona, accusing some of their players — without giving names — of “reproachable behaviour” as they celebrated close to the touchline.
However, the Federation stressed that “nothing, absolutely nothing justifies a violent public reaction”.
In response, Barcelona issued a statement calling the criticism of their players “totally reproachable”.
“The committee should have confined itself to analysing the facts and apply the existing rules,” the Catalan club said.
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique had said in the immediate aftermath of the incident: “We celebrated as it is normal to celebrate a last-minute winner.”

Kenya Airways has elected ex-Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph as its new board chairman.
Joseph replaces Dennis Awori who resigned with effect from October 26, 2016 after serving 11 months at the helm of the board.
Joseph boasts of a huge wealth of experience which the troubled airline hopes they can bank on in its turnaround strategy, after a turbulent year which was characterised by strikes, flight cancellations  and massive losses.
The airline’s unless its top brass, which included Awori, paved way for a new management.
 
It took the intervention of the government to finally persuade the pilots to call off their strike and heed to their demands averting losses that could have run into hundreds of millions of shillings daily.
Joseph is currently employed by Vodafone Group Services Limited as the Director of Mobile Money and is responsible for leading the strategic growth and development of M-Pesa services.

The lass shared one of his photos where the governor is seen wearing a white-gold Kanzu and a gold turban that complimented his entire look. Joho has lately been receiving a lot of praises from the ladies who are looking forward to voting him back into parliament.
 
 
 
The former radio personality could not hide her thirst in her caption where she wrote to say,
Judging from the comments left under the photo, most women seem to agree with her. But as expected there had to be one or two haters disagreeing with the actress.
Neomi Ng’ang’a is however the only media personality to openly show her thirst for the governor. Most tend to hide behind their screens as they ogle some of the good looking politicians in Kenya and East Africa as a whole. Anyway, sometimes the heart likes what it likes…
 
 

Polls showed the Democratic nominee, who is vying to become the first female US president, still comfortably ahead of her billionaire Republican rival with just 13 days to go before Americans pick a new president.
The 70-year-old Manhattan businessman took heart, however, from a new survey that shows him with a two point lead in early voting Florida, and a slight narrowing in the race nationally.
“We are going to have, I think, a tremendous victory,” Trump said in an interview with CNN before heading to North Carolina, one of the battleground states he needs to win on November 8.
Pressed on whether he’ll open his wallet to match an onslaught of Clinton ads, Trump said he will have spent $100 million by Election Day.
“I’m willing to spend much more than that if I have to,” he said.
Trump departed for Charlotte, North Carolina after carving out precious time for the grand opening of his new luxury hotel in Washington, the Trump International Hotel.
Clinton marked her 69th birthday campaigning in Florida, speaking to a capacity crowd in Lake Worth before flying to Tampa on the Gulf coast.
A Bloomberg poll out Wednesday put Trump 45 to 43 percent among likely voters in Florida, a must-win state for him.
A RealClearPolitics poll average still puts Clinton ahead in the state by 1.5 percent. But Bloomberg’s survey shows Trump doing somewhat better than Clinton with independents, who may hold the key to victory in a state that famously deadlocked in 2000. The Supreme Court decided the outcome, giving the win to George W. Bush.
Clinton holds a 4.7 percent lead nationally over Trump in a poll average compiled by tracker RealClearPolitics, but it has narrowed by over half a point since Tuesday.
“There are 13 days left. Most Americans are going to cast their votes on Election Day. And we know we are going to win this election because enthusiasm and momentum, the movement in the polls,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on CBS “This Morning.”
“She’s the one with the huge advantages. We’re the ones with the momentum,” she said of Clinton.
Clinton reached out in taped radio interviews to audiences in Florida and North Carolina as she started her day.
To a Hispanic audience on Miami-based Univision’s National Radio she trumpeted her promises to introduce comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship “as soon as I get there.”
“I’ll do everything I can to keep families together, and to ensure that people living here who have been here for years, who’ve raised their kids here, who’ve worked hard, will have a chance to come forward and finally become citizens,” she said.
Rallying supporters at a college in southern Broward County on Tuesday, Clinton urged Floridians to help propel her to the White House by getting out and voting “right now.”
“Please join me. This is bigger than me. It’s bigger than any of us. It’s even bigger than Donald Trump if you can believe it,” she told the cheering crowd.
President Barack Obama — who will campaign for Clinton on Friday in Florida — has said he wants an overwhelming Democratic victory in order to send the message that Americans reject Trump’s divisive rhetoric.
Florida is the country’s third most populous state, and one with a wide mix of constituencies, including retirees, Hispanics and Bible Belt whites.
“We don’t plan to lose Florida. It is the biggest prize,” Clinton’s communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters Tuesday.
North Carolina voted for Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, but the conservative southern state has been leaning Democratic in the current White House race.
Clinton holds a two percent lead there and the state’s Republican leaders worry that controversies that have dogged Trump throughout the campaign will hurt them in congressional races.
North Carolina’s Republican Senator Richard Burr is in a tight, closely watched re-election contest with Democrat Deborah Ross. A Burr loss could tip control of the US Senate to Democrats.
Trump’s standing in polls has been hit hard, particularly among female voters, since this month’s release of a 2005 video on which he boasts that his celebrity allows him to grope women with impunity.
Since then, about a dozen women have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations.
But a more disciplined Trump has largely stayed on message in Florida, attacking Clinton over taxes and foreign policy, and jabbing at her email scandal.

 
Non-profit and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) can access Microsoft data centres, it’s computing and storage power, to develop and run their applications and to manage relationships with donors, volunteers and beneficiaries on cross- platform basis, Microsoft has said.
Microsoft Azure cloud services donation program will see eligible NGO”s credited but will however be required to renew their subscription annually as the service will be converted into commercially available “pay as you go offer,” with discounted rates.
Microsoft Kenya Country Manager, Kunle Awosika said, “We want to empower every person and organisation to achieve more by investing in technology, employees, partnerships, to drive greater inclusion and empowerment of people who do not have access to technology and the opportunities it enables.”
Microsoft Azure’s cloud services help organisations accelerate innovation with integrated intelligence that powers insights and decision-making, supports a broad selection of operating systems, and provides industry-leading security.
With Azure coming online for non-profits, NGO’s can now offer comprehensive and industry-leading donations programme, digitally transform their business, and transform the world.
This ‘Public Cloud for Good’ Microsoft initiative will donate $1 billion in cloud computing resources over the next three years to 70,000 non-profits and NGOs worldwide with the hope to have 10,000 NGO’s in Sub Saharan Africa using these resources within the next three years.
 
Microsoft also offers an industry-leading donation program which includes free/discounted services including Office 365, Dynamics CRM Online, Enterprise Mobility + Security Suite, Power BI among other.

Rape must be treated as an illegal weapon of war in the same way as chemical weapons, the campaigning gynaecologist Denis Mukwege said Wednesday.
The specialist reconstructive surgeon, who has treated 45,000 victims of sexual violence in the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, said a tougher line had to be taken against this “cheap and efficient” form of terror.
Mukwege, who has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with gang rape victims from the conflicts that have ravaged his homeland, said the world cannot remain indifferent to the suffering.
“We have been able to draw a red line against chemical weapons, biological weapons and nuclear arms,” he told AFP.
“Today we must also draw a red line against rape as a weapon of war,” said the 61-year-old known as “Doctor Miracle” for his surgical skill in treating the terrible damage done to many women.
In his newly published autobiography, “Plea for Life”, Mukwege recounts the “depths of horror” he encountered in conflict-riven South Kivu province that led him to found the Panzi hospital near Bukavu.
He came across the first horrific case in 1999, the same year he treated a woman whose rapists had inserted a gun into her genitals and then fired.
He treated 45 similar cases before the year was out, all victims of the two decades of mayhem in the region where whole villages of women had sometimes been raped in one night.
“In conflict zones battles take place on women’s bodies. When war is declared, when there is no law, no religion, it is the women and children who suffer,” said the son of a Pentecostalist pastor.
Since his unit opened, Mukwege — the subject of an acclaimed documentary last year, “The Man Who Mends Women” — said it has treated 45,000 women and children.
But in his book, he accused the Congolese government of President Joseph Kabila of being indifferent to the horror.
“The victims get a life sentence while the perpetrators” roam free, he said, demanding a “an international tribunal for the Congo to try all these unpunished crimes.”
While his work brought him the Sakharov Prize for human rights in 2014, it has also won him enemies at home.
He lives under constant protection from UN peacekeepers and “sleeps very little”, having survived a number of attempts on his life, including one in October 2012 when his guard was killed.
At the beginning, his Panzi hospital treated around 10 women a day, he said, but with “the drop in the number of conflict zones, that has fallen. This year we see between six and seven (new cases a day).”
However, what worries Mukwege is the rising number of young girls of five and younger that he is now treating.
“They are not just coming from conflict zones but from places considered to be more peaceful,” he said, adding that rape is “spreading like a cancer” in society.
“This is a consequence of the general indifference” to sexual violence, he said.
“If we pull together and draw a red line,” he argued, it could help put a brake on mass rape being used in conflicts, pointing to the systematic molestation of women in Syrian prisons and “Yazidi women in Iraq being sold like bread rolls” by their Islamic State captors.
Despite being included among the “100 most influential people” in the world by Time magazine, Mukwege insisted that he has no intention of ever going into politics.
“This is not a combat for power. It is a battle for liberty and for justice,” he declared.
Once they are “free and have a justice system which works”, the Congolese people will have “peace which will lead to durable development,” the doctor added.
“That will help restore their lost dignity — starting with the women who have been humiliated.”

The United States on Wednesday abstained for the first time in 25 years from a vote at the United Nations calling for an end to the US embargo against Cuba.
The UN General Assembly adopted the annual resolution by an overwhelming 191 votes in favor — with only the United States and Israel abstaining in the 193-nation forum.
Washington’s abstention was in line with calls from President Barack Obama for the opposition-controlled Congress to lift the decades-old embargo as part of a historic normalization of relations.
“The United States has always voted against this resolution. Today the United States will abstain,” US Ambassador Samantha Power told the assembly, drawing loud applause.
“After 55-plus years of pursuing the path of isolation, we are choosing to take the path of engagement.”
The United States restored diplomatic ties with Cuba in July 2015 and a month later re-opened its embassy in Havana. Obama made a landmark visit to the communist-ruled island in March.
But restoring full trade and financial ties with Cuba would require legislative action by Congress, where the Republican majority has said human rights concerns must first be addressed.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez welcomed the US shift as positive, but said that Washington must take concrete steps that go beyond the “vote of one delegation in this forum.”
“The blockade continues to be a massive, flagrant and systematic violation of the human rights of all Cuban men and women and qualifies as an act of genocide,” Rodriguez said.
Economic damage suffered by Cuba from the US embargo between April 2015 and March 2016 — coinciding with the time of Obama’s first meeting with President Raul Castro to his historic Havana visit — is estimated at more than $4.68 billion, Rodriguez said.
Over the past six decades, the damage from the policy amounts to $753.688 billion, he added.
Embargo restrictions have prevented the sale of US medical equipment to treat Cubans suffering from Parkinson’s disease and blocked a deal by a Cuban pharmaceutical company that would have allowed it to produce drugs locally, said the foreign minister.
“There isn’t any Cuban family or sector in our country that has not suffered from its effects,” he said.
This year’s UN resolution makes note of steps taken by the Democratic Obama administration to ease the embargo, describing them as positive but “still limited in scope.”
The measure calls on all UN member states to refrain from applying the embargo and to “reaffirm the freedom of trade and navigation.”
Last year, the United States and Israel were the only two countries that voted against the non-binding resolution, but 191 voted in favor — the highest level of support yet for the measure at the United Nations.
Power recalled that the US policy aimed at isolating Cuba “was not working” and had instead isolated the United States.
“Abstaining on this resolution does not mean that the United States agrees with all of the policies and practices of the Cuban government. We do not,” said Power.
After praising Cuba for sending hundreds of doctors to West Africa to fight the Ebola virus outbreak, Power said the United States and Cuba must continue to find ways to engage, despite differences.
“Today, we have taken another small step to be able to do that. May there be many more — including, we hope, finally ending the US embargo,” she said.
The assembly has voted each year since 1992 to approve the resolution criticizing the embargo that was imposed in 1960, at the height of the Cold War.
The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 after Fidel Castro rose to power and aligned himself with the then-Soviet Union.
Moderate Cuban dissident Manuel Cuesta, who has met twice with Obama to discuss human rights, expressed hope the US abstention would lead to lifting the embargo.
“The embargo has been transformed into a bag where the Cuban government puts all its failures, and it must be lifted to get rid of all the excuses,” Cuesta told AFP.

The notorious “Jungle” camp on the outskirts of the French port of Calais has for years been a staging post for migrants trying to sneak across the Channel to Britain on lorries or trains.
Following are key dates in the history of the settlement, which French authorities began to clear on Monday.
The Red Cross opens a camp at Sangatte, near Calais, for migrants sleeping rough.
The camp closes under pressure from Britain, which sees the facility as a lure for migrants trying to cross the Channel.
Hundreds of mainly Afghan migrants then set up camp east of Calais on a patch of scrubland next to a road used by lorries heading for the port. The migrants dub it the Jungle.
The Jungle is demolished for the first time on the orders of then president Nicolas Sarkozy, following a mass police raid in which scores of people are arrested.
– Early 2015: A settlement named the New Jungle sprouts up near a state-run day centre for migrants established at the site. The camp later becomes simply known as the Jungle.
– June 2015: The Jungle’s reputation for lawlessness grows as clashes between migrants and police become a regular occurrence. Twenty-one people are injured when a brawl breaks out between up to 300 migrants.
– November 2015: France’s top administrative court raps the government over conditions in the Jungle, describing them as “inhuman”.
– January: The port of Calais is shut for more than three hours after dozens of migrants occupy a moored Britain-bound ferry.
– February-March: Southern half of the Jungle camp is demolished. Evicted migrants move to the northern part of the camp, but pressure builds to tear down the remainder.
– September 26: President Francois Hollande announces the Jungle will be demolished by year’s end and its remaining migrants — estimated to number around 6,000 — will be moved to shelters around the country.
– October: Britain accelerates the transfer of child refugees seeking to be reunited with relatives, taking in around 200 minors. On October 24 thousands of migrants are bussed out and a day later work begins to demolish the shantytown.

With the current widespread of street crime, a shocking video clip has surfaced online of a woman’s bag snatched on the streets of Nairobi. The video was recorded on Saturday depicting the three people gang corner the helpless woman from behind, grab her bag and after few confrontation words, the owner of the bag is seen raising her arms in defeat for the gang to take the bag. The thieves then get lost within the crowd passing through the parked there.
What is more chilling, two men actually pass her, look at the push and pull between the victim and gang and keep walking. Mind you, the victim wasn’t being robbed in an alley; it was at a very open place.
According to Nairobi Wire, a 23year old student at Kenyatta University took the video and shared the video with them. During an exclusive interview they conducted, the videographer mentioned how she has seen the gang a couple of times robbing people blindly at around the same spot: pedestrians and motorists.
 
Making her identity hidden, the student recounts how for the last two months she has witnessed the gang targeting their victims. From single car occupant to a bank located neat the Kiambu Stage in the CBD.  And after a lot of being an onlooker…she decided to take the video hoping something will be done to the culprits.
What is saddening most is there is always a policeman controlling the traffic, but for some reason the police haven’t noticed the gang. Two months later.
 

An email released by WikiLeaks shows that a top Hillary Clinton adviser was dumbfounded that aides to the White House hopeful failed to disclose her use of a private email server, suggesting “they wanted to get away with it.”
The email from Neera Tanden, who currently helps run Clinton’s transition team, is dated March 2, 2015, the day The New York Times revealed that Clinton had used a homebrew email server while serving as secretary of state rather than her secured government account.
While the FBI concluded earlier this year that federal charges against Clinton were not justified in the case, the issue has dogged her campaign to become America’s first woman president.
Tanden, the president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, was trading messages with John Podesta, who was at the time preparing to chair Clinton’s campaign.
“Why didn’t they get this stuff out like 18 months ago? So crazy,” Tanden wrote.
Podesta responded: “Unbelievable.”
Tanden later wrote: “I guess I know the answer. They wanted to get away with it.”
Tanden suggested the decision to try to keep Clinton’s private email use secret could be traced back to Cheryl Mills, a close aide at the time, calling it a “Cheryl special.”
“Know you love her, but this stuff is like her Achilles heal (sic). Or kryptonite. she just can’t say no to this shit,” she wrote.
In a separate exchange released by WikiLeaks, Mills herself wrote to Podesta several days later, on March 7, 2015: “We need to clean this up — he has emails from her — they do not say state.gov,” referring to President Barack Obama.
In the exchange with Tanden, Podesta acknowledged that Mills, Clinton’s personal lawyer David Kendall and longtime aide Philippe Reines “sure weren’t forthcoming on the facts here.”
The Clinton campaign has not confirmed or denied the authenticity of the stream of messages leaked by WikiLeaks, but has accused Russia of directing the hack of Podesta’s emails in an effort to tilt the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
Other messages published by WikiLeaks show Podesta and Tanden discussing potential weaknesses of the Democratic candidate.
“Her inability to just do a national interview and communicate genuine feelings of remorse and regret is now, I fear, becoming a character problem (more so than honesty),” Tanden wrote on August 22, 2015.
In September 2015, Podesta wrote about the hit Clinton’s campaign took as a result of the revelations on her email practices, and how the candidate handled them.
“We’ve taken on a lot of water that won’t be easy to pump out of the boat. Most of that has to do with terrible decisions made pre-campaign, but a lot has to do with her instincts,” Podesta wrote on September 6, 2015.
“She’s nervous so prepping more and performing better. Got to do something to pump up excitement but not certain how to do that.”
Tanden then responded: “Almost no one knows better me that her instincts can be terrible. She does have to give time to allow new things to take hold.”

South African police on Wednesday fired stun grenades to disperse student protesters outside parliament as the finance minister delivered a speech warning of the country’s weakening economy.
Pravin Gordhan cut the 2016 growth forecast sharply from 0.9 percent to 0.5 percent as South Africa struggles with political uncertainty, violent university protests and high unemployment.
Students and police have clashed regularly on campuses nationwide in recent weeks during protests against rising tuition fees, and Gordhan used his mid-term budget speech to pledge more money for universities.
But he also delivered grim news over the economy, as South Africa faces the prospect of a damaging ratings downgrade to junk status later this year.
“Our economic growth will be just 0.5 per cent this year, rising to 1.7 percent in 2017,” Gordhan told parliament in Cape Town.
“It is not just that our economic outlook is distressed, and there is the possibility of downgrades in credit ratings.
“Much more disturbing, and more difficult, is the rise in our own communities of anger and discontent, spilling over into violence and destructive protests.”
Gordhan is at the centre of a political power struggle after vowing to cut down on government corruption and excessive spending, leading him to clash with loyalists of President Jacob Zuma.
Next week Gordhan, who enjoys wide-ranging popular support in South Africa, is due in court on corruption charges that he has said are a politically-motivated attempt to oust him.
As riot police fought with about 2,000 protesters outside the national assembly building, Gordhan announced an extra 17 billion rand ($1.2 billion) of funding for university students.
Violent demonstrations by students in Johannesburg, Cape Town and elsewhere have forced several universities to close temporarily.
“Many students face financial hardships that undermine their ability to succeed academically,” Gordhan said.
“We will do everything that is possible to regain normality on our campuses. We want the violence to stop.”
Ahead of his court appearance, Gordhan’s cause has attracted backing from Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, some ministers and scores of business leaders.
Zuma said Tuesday that he had not acted to stop the prosecution because interfering would drive the country “closer to a banana republic”.
Gordhan has led efforts to avoid a rating downgrade by controlling spending, reforming loss-making state companies and tackling rampant corruption.
“Public funds must not be diverted to private ends,” he said Wednesday. “All citizens are entitled to demand accountability and integrity from those who serve them.”
Zuma has been embroiled in a series of graft scandals while in office and has faced increasingly vocal calls from within the ruling ANC party to step down before his term ends in 2019.
The president last week blocked the release of a watchdog’s potentially explosive report into corruption allegations against him over the alleged influence of a wealthy business family.
He said he had not been given the opportunity to respond to the allegations.

Kenya’s economy is expected to be among the best in the Sub-Saharan region heading towards the end of 2016.
According to the latest Regional Economic Outlook report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kenya, will maintain a robust growth, reaping from cheaper oil.
The report states that the country’s projected growth will remain on course and expand by over 6.0 per cent in the last quarter of 2016 and rise to 6.5 per cent in 2017.
This is in stark contrast to other Sub-Saharan countries whose average stands at 1.4 per cent.
Speaking at the launch of the report, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich owed the robust economic growth to ongoing investments in infrastructural development, private sector investments, resilient domestic demand, private sector investments, recovery in the tourism sector and growth in exports to the East African sub-region.
 
Rotich added.
However, despite the positive growth, the CS cautioned Kenyans, urging them to live within their means in order to avoid financial shocks that are currently being experienced by other countries.
The report painted a grim picture of traditional economic powerhouses such as Nigeria and South Africa, which are under severe economic strains and are depressing the overall growth of the Sub-Saharan region.
Output among oil exporters is expected to shrink by 1.3 per cent this year, weighed down by a deep contraction in Nigeria as South Africa continues to struggle with low commodity prices and poor confidence.
Other countries plagued with the same problems include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Sometimes, in the heat of things, these rivalries take a nasty turn that plunge us into bloody tussles fueled by the political elite.
But what should be a celebration of our differences and uniqueness should not really be the source of so much clashes and mass extermination.
Despite what the politics of the day dictate, what the media portrays, what the loudest you on the campaign podium yells and what the tribal radio spews, our communities will never escape one glaring reality – the fact that we ain’t built the same, don’t subscribe to the same culture, have our own unique peculiarities and special strengths and traits which will never change.
Often, you may be expected to be sorry or regretful of who you are and what you do but no, weren’t sorry for being who we are. And doing what we do.
Some things are just inherent to some tribes. And that’s just the way things are.
8 Things Kikuyus Should Never Apologize About
You just can’t take this away from us. It’s just who we are. Who we’ve been and who we can’t stop being. From Naivasha to Narok to Nanyuki, we’ve put up shop and continue to put up shop on all corners. We’ve infiltrated the cities and the towns, spread our financial tentacles across the entire Country, dipped our hands into every imaginable trade, expanded our commercial horizons from Coast to Coast and ruled the world of business like Russian tsars. It’s who we are. Furious business moguls.
You just can’t take that from us. Just can’t. We’ve spread out like the Ocean sand from the valleys of the East to the Mountains of the West. We’re everywhere. We’re the biggest, most formidable tribe and our numbers fill up the land in their millions. Everyday, new sons and daughters are added to our already burgeoning population and it’s just what it is. We’re the biggest tribe in terms of sheer numbers. And that may never change. Ever.
We’ve received alot of flak for our food which, the rest of you, consider trashy, shoddy and less than delicious. Yes, we know it. We wish there is something we could do to make our women prepare something more palatable. We wish we weren’t so obsessed with soup and potatoes and cabbages and tomatoes. We have never quite gotten it right in the kitchen. We probably never will. It’s sad. But we’ve accepted that our culinary skills are as good as Uhuru’s ability to effectively fight corruption.
 
Bro, show me better girls. From any tribe. We produce the best girls. No, seriously. All the pretty little lightskinned damsels are our product. They may not have the big butts and all that curviness but they sure come looking like a lot Italian flower garden. Look around, the most gorgeous girls in town… Are Kikuyu girls. Absolute showstoppers.
 
We’re hard workers. Hard mathafakin’ workers. We don’t laze around. Don’t wake up at 11am to catch a movie and whip up scrambled eggs. We wake up earlier than a cockerel. And even before the crack of dawn, we’re already in town running errands, opening up our stalls, doing deliveries and pushing bread. Hard work is our second name. Like ants,we don’t sleep. Just don’t. Gotta push up the hassle.
 
Like, dude, we’re allover the place. We’re in Loitoktok and we’re in Kilifi and we’re in Busia. We’re just littered across the expanse like summer birds. We’re in the valleys and on the hills. We’re your neighbors and we’re even across the borders. We’ve been asked to lie low like envelops before. And we all know how that worked out.
OK,this is just a little polite word instead of, eeer, greed. We’ve been accused of being a piglike, gluttonous bunch. And we really have no defence. We’re constantly hankering after a good deal. Constantly looking out for a chance to eat. We’re always out to get a coin. We just want to keep pocketing and pocketing and pocketing some more. We just never have enough. We’re a terrible, insatiable lot that just wants more and more. Our biggest drive is the sound of the coin. And we won’t stop till we’ve amassed as much as we possibly, shamelessly can.
Admit it, we call the political shots. Don’t even trip. The first Era of Presidency was ours. We lost it for some quarter century before we repossessed it. We just endured another decade of a Kikuyu Presidency. And as we speak right now, we’re not only under a Kikuyu leadership, we might end up with the same arrangement as from 2017. We’ve always being at the top of national decision making. I’m not saying we make fantastic leaders. I’m just saying, we’re like always at the helm. Always man.
TOMORROW : Sorry, Not Sorry. 8 Things Luos Should Never Apologize About

Ethiopia on Wednesday denied that a string of withdrawals of troops from towns in Somalia were connected to the state of emergency declared in response to nearly a year of anti-government protests.
Government spokesman Getachew Reda insisted the removal of troops from a string of Somali towns — including at least three since Ethiopia declared a six-month state of emergency on October 9 — was to do with the “financial burden” and “lack of support” rather than the need for more troops at home.
“It has nothing to do with the state of emergency,” Reda told a press conference in the capital Addis Ababa.
“We have been making a very conscious and responsible decision to evacuate our forces from many parts of Somalia. We cannot remain there indefinitely.”
Reda said the domestic challenge represented by the unprecedented months of sometimes deadly anti-government protests was not “enormous enough for us to shift our policy in Somalia”.
Ethiopian troops deployed to fight Shabaab militants in Somalia have left towns in the western Bakool and Hiraan regions in recent weeks, allowing the insurgents to immediately reclaim them.
Most recently, Tiyeeglow in Bakool region was abandoned on Wednesday and hours later Shabaab fighters moved in.
“We were informed about the pullout of the Ethiopian troops and this morning they have proceeded with their plan to vacate the town,” said Abdulahi Moalim Hassan, a security official in Hudur, the nearby district capital.
“We are not sure about the fate of Hudur as well,” he added. “People are worried and they are not relying on the Ethiopian troops anymore.”
Reda said the withdrawn troops were not from Ethiopia’s 4,400-strong contingent of the internationally-funded African Union peace-enforcement mission, AMISOM, but rather were some of the “few thousands” deployed in Somalia unilaterally for which his government is “paying all the expenses”.
“These troops are not under AMISOM and unfortunately are not being helped in their efforts to assist the Somali national army,” said Reda.
He said AMISOM troops were not affected and neither were all non-AMISOM forces being withdrawn.

The family of Conjestina Achieng’ are to blame for her condition and the lack of support from well- wishers.
Conjestina Achieng’ who was hospitalized yesterday has been in and out of hospital as her health deteriorates with each passing day.
Conjesina’s woes started back in 2012. She was admitted to hospital and ad pending bills topping the 500,000 KES mark.
After a plea went out, the public managed to raise over 700,000 to clear her bills and help her during her recuperating period.
A couple of months later, Conjestina was back in the news with her poor health and helplessness again the subject of another appeal to different stake-holders for help.
It has since become a cycle and at various points, private individuals and organizations have chipped in until somehow, Kenya’s famed generosity ran dry.
Nowadays, calls for #SaveConje are usually ignored even though her cases and the plight of her son get covered. The reason it appears could be the family.
 
Radio Africa’s Carol Radull has come out placing the blame on Conjestina’s family.
In a couple of tweets, Radull explained why the current campaign to help Conjestina would not work unless done excluding the family.
 
 
It is not the first time the family has been accused of squandering money and discouraging well-wishers’ efforts.
Early this year in February, a model from Nairobi, Miss Eastlands, Eveleen Ming’oye was involved with a fierce exchange with the family.
She accused them of using Conjestina as a cash cow and the brothers use money sent to her for school fees for their own children.
 
The family has denied this accusations. Instead they accuse leading personalities of either seeking fame or the camera moments pledging a lot but hardly delivering anything. They accused Miss Eastlands for seeking a way to make easy cash.
As the squabbles continue, Conjestina Achieng’ suffer more and her son who is doing KCSE this year bars an even greater burden struggling to cater for most of his needs and the occasional well wisher.

Below are a few reasons why most ladies never orgasms during sex. They are also pointers on how one you can work on climaxing.
1.
Are you tired of the same old type of foreplay? Well, this could be the reason why you rarely climax even when he pounds you like millet. The only way to change this is to explore new foreplay moves. After realizing what works for you then practice it more often and see ho
2.
It is tempting to show off your skills in bed. However, the acrobatic moves can be tiresome making it hard for a woman to climax. It is important to try a position/s i.e etc that will work for both parties. Focus on where you feel pleasure most and allow your body to go with the flow.
 
It is important to communicate while having sex. Direct your partner to understand where you feel pleasure the most i.e . Don’t start conversations like “ (my apologies to all talkers).
Do you ever find yourself thinking of how you look while having sex? ? Well don’t worry it happens to most people. However this is another reason why you find yourself not climaxing. The brain is an important organ of the body especially during sex. It registers everything you feel while in the act. Anyway, if you find yourself turning out it is advisable to try some foreplay, touch yourself or change positions then jump back in for an interesting experience.

Russia?s Svetlana Kuznetsova produced another extraordinary comeback to win her second straight match at the WTA Finals on Wednesday, sealing a place in the semi-finals.
Just two days after she saved a match point to defeat the defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska, Kuznetsova again rallied back from the brink to beat US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova 3-6 6-2 7-6 (8-6) in a heart-stopper at Singapore?s Indoor Stadium.
Kuznetsova still has another round-robin match to play on Friday against Garbine Muguruza but is already assured of finishing top of the White Group standings after Muguruza was beaten 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 by Radwanska in Wednesday?s late match.
Muguruza is out of contention after losing her first two matches, leaving Pliskova and Radwanska to square off to decide who else goes through from the group.
?I’m just very glad that I could win that match in two sets,? said Radwanska, who was down set point in the opening set. ?I think I was playing solid tennis, I think I hit the right shots in important moments. That was a very close one.?
With sweat pouring from her face and her muscles aching after she had run herself ragged for more than two hours, the 31-year-old Kuznetsova triumphed through sheer willpower and nerves of steel.
?I play with my heart. I always do,? she said. ?But maybe I?m starting to believe a little bit more than before. I just hang in there more.
?Some things get together and you get confidence. I see opponents fear me more than before because I win matches, I fight, and I’ll be there. It doesn’t matter if I play like crap and I’m sore, I will just be there.?
Pliskova, seven years younger than Kuznetsova but with ice in her veins as well after saving a match point to beat Muguruza on Monday, looked poised to end Kuznetsova?s inspired run when she recovered from 4-1 down in the deciding third set to lead 6-5.
But the towering Czech squandered her chance to serve out the match, hitting a string of unforced errors as she tried to end the contest quickly, and the relentless Kuznetsova broke back and forced a tiebreaker.
The match was still in the balance when Pliskova saved three successive match points to draw level at 6-6 in the tiebreaker. Kuznetsova regained her composure and won the next two points to clinch victory with a backhand winner down the line.
?I’m not surprised at all,? Pliskova said. ?She?s won two Grand Slams, so it’s not someone who just came up.
?She is very strong woman and she can really play tennis. She has a tough game.?
With Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both absent from the prestigious end-of-season championship, Kuznetsova has emerged as the unlikely headline act of the $7 million tournament, restricted to the world?s top eight players.
She defied the odds just to qualify for the tournament for the first time since 2009, only sneaking into the elite field after winning the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Saturday, then hopped straight on a plane and made the long flight to Southeast Asia.
Jet-lagged when she arrived, she seemed to be heading towards defeat in her first match with Radwanska when she asked the umpire for a pair of scissors and began cutting her own hair during a change of ends.
She went on and won the match as footage of the impromptu haircut went viral on social media, winning Kuznetsova a legion of new fans, but upsetting her regular hairstylist.
?I made a picture and I sent it to my hair cutter,? Kuznetsova said. ?He was like, ?I?m going to kill you?.?

A French luxury hotel owner who was brazenly snatched in a busy part of the Riviera resort of Nice two days ago was found alive and well on Wednesday, police said.
Jacqueline Veyrac, the co-owner of the five-star Grand Hotel in Cannes, was found by a resident of west Nice, prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre said, adding that two people had been arrested in Nice in connection with the probe.
The man went to inspect a white van in which the 76-year-old had been kidnapped after noticing it had false number plates. He found Veyrac bound to its floor, he said.
“He smashed one of the windows, opened the door and freed Madame Veyrac before immediately informing the police,” Pretre said.
“It’s a satisfactory ending,” he added.
Witnesses said Veyrac was getting into her SUV on Monday after emerging from a pharmacy when abductors grabbed her and bundled her into a waiting van before speeding off.
“This is not the end of the affair, it’s just the end of the kidnapping,” he said, describing it as a “complex” and “mysterious” case that appeared not to be linked to ransom but “something very personal”.
“There are several leads and the police have launched a big investigation,” he said, adding that Veyrac had suffered psychological trauma “but had kept her wits about her and was able to provide valuable information to investigators.”
Veyrac, whose husband died five years ago, co-owns the Grand Hotel with one of her sons and the pair also run a gourmet restaurant in Nice called La Reserve.
She was the victim of a kidnapping attempt three years ago, the motive of which was never discovered.
The seafront Grand Hotel, bought by the Veyrac family in 1963 and refurbished, is close to the Palais des Festivals where the Cannes Film Festival is held each May.
Sophie Jonquet, a family layer, said Veyrac now wanted to resume her low-key “life of anonymity that she cherishes”.

At least 3,800 migrants and refugees have perished this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, the highest ever toll ever on the perilous route, the UN said Wednesday.
“We can confirm that at least 3,800 people have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, making the death toll in 2016 the highest ever recorded,” UN refugee agency spokesman William Spindler told AFP in an email, as the figures passed last year’s mark of 3,771.
The sombre milestone was reached despite a significant decline in migrant crossing this year compared to 2015.
Last year, more than a million people reached Europe via the Mediterranean, but crossings so far this year remain below 330,000.
Numbers began dropping dramatically following a March deal between Turkey and the European Union to stem the migrant tide on the Greek islands.
The most dangerous route has been between Libya and Italy, where the United Nations has recorded one death for every 47 arrivals this year.
For the much shorter Turkey to Greece route, the likelihood of perishing was one in 88, UNHCR said.
The agency explained that death rates have spiked despite nearly a two-thirds drop in total migration because smugglers are “often using lower quality vessels — flimsy inflatable rafts that do not last the journey.”
Smugglers also appear to be packing increasing numbers of people on boats, possibly to drive up profits, UNHCR further said.
Shipwrecks involving more people have reduced rescue rates, the agency added, also noting that several disasters this year have been linked to bad weather.

The UN children’s agency UNICEF said Wednesday it had negotiated the release of 145 child soldiers from two rebel groups in South Sudan.
“Our hope is that today’s release will be followed by many others,” Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF head in South Sudan, said in a statement.
UNICEF estimates that around 16,000 children are currently fighting or working as porters with armed groups in South Sudan, including the national army. It says that more than 800 have been recruited this year alone.
The 145 released this week came from a group called the Cobra Faction and from the main SPLA/IO rebel faction, both in the eastern Pibor region of the country. In 2015, armed groups in the same area released a total of 1,775 children.
Freed children are disarmed, given civilian clothes and drafted into a reintegration programme. They receive counselling and efforts are made to trace their families.
“Children in South Sudan need safety, protect ion and opportunities,” Mdoe said.
“With the ongoing fighting across the country, UNICEF continues to receive reports about the recruitment of children. We urge all parties to abide by international law, to end recruitment and to release children who are currently serving in their ranks.”
South Sudan fell back into civil war in December 2013, with fighting continuing despite international efforts to force a peace deal on the warring parties.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has blamed the government for the spate of violence that has recently rocked the North Rift leaving at least 30 people dead and over 10,000 livestock stolen.
Party leader Raila Odinga accused the national government of failing to provide security in the Kerio Valley, which has borne the heaviest brunt of violence in the past few days.
Raila said in a statement.
At the same time, Party Secretary General Agnes Zani condemned an incident on Tuesday night where goons stormed the Turkana ODM command centre and fired several gunshots in the air before heading to the home of Josephat Ekeno, the party’s candidate in the area ward by-election.
 
Two of Ekeno’s children were shot in the incident and sustained serious injuries.
One of the children was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret where she is scheduled to undergo an operation.
Zani said.
ODM says the party has noted several reported cases of voter bribery and buying being perpetuated by Jubilee legislators ahead of the four ward by elections in Tana River, Kisii, Turkana and Kajiado Counties.
Following the increased violence in Kerio Valley, the government has reshuffled the area’s senior security officers in a raft of changes announced from Vigilance House in Nairobi.
The Elgeyo Markwet Police commander Sharif Abdallah has been transferred to the Nairobi head office and named head of operations.
He has been replaced by Kajiado police boss Tom Odera.

Japan pleaded with the world’s whaling watchdog Wednesday to allow small hunts by coastal communities, arguing that for three decades these groups had been unjustly barred from a traditional source of food.
The issue of “small type coastal hunting” is a key dispute between pro- and anti-whaling nations gathered in Slovenia for the 66th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
As in other years that the issue has come up, Japan’s ambitions were backed by fellow whalers Norway and Iceland, and vehemently opposed by the United States, Europe, Australia and others.
All whaling other than for aboriginal subsistence or for scientific research is banned under an IWC moratorium introduced 30 years ago.
“There is this perception that we are asking (for the) total lifting of the moratorium, that is not the case,” Japan’s commissioner to the IWC, Joji Morishita told delegates .
“We are just asking for a small quota based on science, and of particular species in particular water. That’s it.”
Japan seeks a quota for minke whales in the West Pacific, and argues that stock numbers can sustain small hunts.
The takings would be “exclusively for local consumption” by four coastal communities, it said.
“I’m not asking other countries to change their basic positions,” said Morishita, nor “to eat whale meat.”
He urged other nations to look beyond their “principled position against whaling under any circumstances” in the quest for a compromise on this and other deeply divisive whaling questions.
“It’s not like one side is bad and one side is good. This is not a dichotomy or a black and white situation,” the commissioner said.
Along with Norway and Iceland, which argued the IWC was “held hostage” by anti-whalers, Japan’s position was also supported by Russia.
“I think that we all have to remember that those four communities in Japan that have been asking for quota, they have a 5,000-year history of whaling,” said Russia’s deputy IWC commissioner, Valentin Ilyashenko.
“Our task is not only to conserve biodiversity but also to conserve culture and traditions.”
The European Union and United States spoke out strongly against the proposal.
“We can only reiterate our stong support for the maintenance of the global moratorium on commercial whaling and our serious concerns about the impact of small type coastal whaling on whales,” the Dutch commissioner Roel Feringa, said on behalf of the EU bloc.
For the US, commissioner Russell Smith said it was also an issue of values.
“Those values for the US include ensuring that our subsistence farmers have their right, have the access to the whales that they need, but they also include the value that we at this time should not be engaged in commercial whaling.”
The disagreement sets Japan up for an even bigger clash later this week, about its annual whale killings in the name of scientific research — which other nations claim is a cover-up for commercial hunting for meat.
New Zealand and Australia have submitted a proposal to the IWC for scientific hunts, which are allowed under a loophole in the moratorium, to be much more closely scrutinised.
If countries cannot agree on a compromise on the proposal, a vote will be held, probably on Thursday.
Norway, too, came under fire on Wednesday — from conservation groups which accuse the IWC of giving the world’s biggest whale hunter, a free ride.
Norway, which conducts commercial hunts under a formal objection it had lodged to the moratorium, took 736 minke whales in 2014, according to IWC numbers, compared to Japan’s 196 — 81 minke, 25 Bryde’s whales and 90 sei whales.
With a dwindling appetite for whale meat in Norway, as in Iceland, much of the Norwegian catch is exported to Japan, and some used as animal feed, said Sandra Altherr of Pro Wildlife.
“Commercial whaling and trade is ongoing, and Norway is a huge part of that,” she said. “But we don’t see any diplomatic measures on Norway.”

While Diamond, Ali Kiba and other East Africans walked away empty handed, the 4 man group won an award at the ceremony – guaranteeing East Africa with the Best Group MAMA title for the next year.
Sauti Sol was also nominated in the categories of Song of the Year, Best Collab and Artist of the Year. It was the first time for Sauti Sol to clinch the coveted and highly competitive award for Best Group. However, they have previously won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Act in Africa in 2014.
 
Speaking in South Africa right after the win Sauti Sol said,
Following this fete, Kenyans gave Sauti Sol a welcome fit for a king with musicians like Wahu and Nameless joining the welcome party.
 
Follow this link for the homecoming video: