Month: October 2016

In one of the tents due to be demolished in the windswept Calais “Jungle” camp in northern France, the migrants who once lived there had left behind several loaves of bread and a milk carton.
Outside they had also abandoned the clothes that were drying on a washing line slung between a tree and a pole, suggesting they had left in a hurry.
Arabic graffiti scrawled on the side of another tent, among one of the first to be torn down, said: “You may be able to find safety in a temporary homeland, but you cannot build a life.”
All that remained of this section of the camp — which once housed hundreds of migrants hoping to reach Britain — was a pile of mattresses, blankets, clothes, pots, plastic bags and suitcases, dumped by demolition workers on top of the debris from the wrecked tents and huts.
Elsewhere in the Jungle the remaining inhabitants attempted to carry on as normal before reluctantly leaving, or making a final stand against their removal.
As authorities took sledgehammers Tuesday to some of the structures that once housed vibrant communities of Afghans, Eritreans and Syrians amongst others, some of those who had spent time in the camp spoke to AFP about their experiences in the Jungle.
One group of young men from Sudan gathered around a small fire they had lit to stay warm, smoking a water pipe.
“We are leaving tomorrow morning,” said one of the men as he smoked.
But despite French efforts to clear the camp — more than 3,000 people have already been bussed to shelters around France — some migrants are refusing to budge.
“Why has Britain abandoned us? How will France house so many thousands? We want to go to Britain. I am not leaving the camp until the French police come here and force me out,” said Sudanese 18-year-old Ali Othman, smoking a cigarette outside his tent.
“Whatever the French police do to me I will not apply for asylum here. They can detain me, jail me, throw me out on the street. I still want to go to Britain.”
In the town centre, business owners reflected on what the camp, which has existed in a makeshift form since 2002, has meant for them.
Ali Charfa, the owner of a restaurant in central Calais — the closest point on continental Europe to the UK mainland — said that British people had avoided the town because of the Jungle.
“I have been in Calais 25 years. I moved here from Paris because I heard you could make a lot of money here, because of all the business the Channel crossing and the construction of the Eurotunnel would bring,” he said.
“The migrants have never done me any harm, but people in Britain only ever think about the Jungle when they hear of Calais. So it makes them stay away.
“I think the situation will improve a little — (it) will never be what it once was, but will be better than now.
“The problem in the long run will not improve though. They want to be in Britain. That will not change. They will come back one day.”

Britain’s Carl Frampton will defend his WBA world featherweight title in a Las Vegas rematch with Mexican Leo Santa Cruz on January 28, he revealed on Tuesday.
Frampton, 29, defeated Santa Cruz via majority decision at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in July to become Northern Ireland’s first two-weight world champion.
The pair will face off again at the MGM Grand after Frampton announced the news on Twitter with a video of him singing the Elvis Presley song ‘Viva Las Vegas’.
“It’s official!” Frampton wrote. “The rematch vs @leosantacruz2 is set for @MGMGrand Las Vegas, January 28th. WE’RE BRINGING AN ARMY #AndStill.”
Frampton won his first world title when he beat Spain’s Kiko Martinez on points in an IBF super bantamweight bout in September 2014.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday threatened to veto the EU’s budget over a lack of solidarity from European neighbours as it struggles with a huge influx of migrants.
“We give 20 billion (euros) to Europe so that we can get back 12 — and if Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia want to preach at us about immigrants, allow Italy to say that the system is no longer working,” Renzi told RAI 1 television.
Asked if he was ready to use Italy’s veto to torpedo the EU’s budget, he said: “Yes, absolutely.”
Renzi railed against central European countries that have closed off their borders to migrants and refused to take in asylum seekers under an EU quota plan as Europe battles its worst migration crisis since World War II.
“If you build walls against immigrants, you can forget about seeing Italian money. If the immigrants don’t go there, the money won’t go there either,” he said.
Italy’s Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan confirmed Tuesday evening that the government had received a letter from the European Commission demanding “clarifications” from Italy concerning its 2017 national budget.
Italy has a forecast budget deficit of 2.3 percent of GDP in 2017 — significantly higher than that expected by Brussels — due to a deadly earthquake in August as well as the costs of hosting migrants arriving across the Mediterranean from North Africa.
“The clarifications demanded are linked to exceptional expenditure for the earthquake and over immigration,” Padoan said.
Italy has seen 155,000 people arrive on its shores this year, putting immense strain on its overcrowded reception centres as well as government coffers.
On Tuesday the Italian coastguard, which coordinates rescue operations off the Libyan coast, said 500 people had been rescued from four inflatable boats during the day.
Thirteen dead bodies were recovered by two of the rescue boats — 11 by a ship run by the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and the others by a Maltese patrol vessel.
In northern Italy, residents of the village of Ferrara meanwhile barricaded roads with pallets to block the arrival of a bus carrying 12 migrants, all African women, who were due to take up residence in a requisitioned hotel.
Local authorities eventually gave up and took the women to neighbouring villages.
The incident sparked a mixture of criticism and praise in Italy, where anti-migrant sentiment has been rising in some corners, as in other European countries.
Local politician Alan Fabbri of the anti-immigration Northern League thanked those who had protested for “democracy and good sense”, while Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the barricades “did our country no honour”.

Five-time Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins embarked upon his final event on British soil on the opening day of the London Six Day on Tuesday, his first competitive appearance since revelations he used a banned substance.
The 36-year-old, who became Britain’s first Tour de France champion in 2012 and is due to retire next month, was moved to defend himself after leaks of his medical records by presumed Russian hackers revealed he was granted therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for a steroid.
“It’s just good to get back on the bike. I love riding the track,” said Wiggins, who received a warm welcome from the crowd at Lee Valley VeloPark.
Wiggins has been forced to answer uncomfortable questions about his stance on doping ever since cyber hackers the Fancy Bears revealed his use of the banned triamcinolone last month.
Wiggins and Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford have strenuously denied wrongdoing over the use of the drug, which has been linked to doping offences in the sport.
Wiggins had three TUEs for the substance approved by world cycling’s governing body the UCI to treat a pollen allergy. There is no suggestion he broke any rules.
UK Anti-Doping is investigating allegations of wrongdoing after reports a package was delivered to Team Sky during the 2011 Criterium du Dauphine, which Wiggins won.
Sky, British Cycling and Wiggins are co-operating with the probe.
Wiggins will bow out at next month’s Six Day in Ghent, the Belgian city where he was born.

The Chicago Cubs prepared to launch their bid to end the longest championship drought in American sports history on Tuesday with Game One of baseball’s World Series just hours away.
With the sound of war drums in the air and hundreds of fans on the scene hours early, an electric atmosphere was building in downtown Cleveland ahead of the opening game in the 112th World Series.
Jon Lester, a 32-year-old left-hander who won two World Series titles with Boston, will start for the Cubs in their first World Series game since 1945 against Cleveland right-hander Corey Kluber.
Dozens of fans wound around a checkout line in the Indians team store while others with huge drums, wild outfits and only dreams of tickets prepared to party outside the stadium even as the city’s NBA team, the Cavaliers, prepared to open their 2016-2017 season at the arena next door.
While tension built outside, Cubs manager Joe Maddon was quietly positioning his team for the quest of winning their first Major League Baseball crown since 1908 by placing hitter Kyle Schwarber onto Chicago’s 25-man World Series roster and removing left-handed pitcher Rob Zastryzny.
Schwarber, a 23-year-old outfielder, played only twice this season and has not played since April 7 at Arizona, where he suffered torn left knee ligaments in a collision with outfielder Dexter Fowler. He was not expected to play again until next season.
But doctors cleared Schwarber to run and hit last week and after a solid hitting effort in Arizona training games, Maddon elected to place him in the starting lineup for game one as the designated hitter.
American League rules are used in AL ballparks in the World Series and unlike in the National League, where the Cubs are champions, that means designated hitters replace pitchers in the batting order.
With up to four World Series games in Cleveland, that means the Cubs need an extra hitter more than an extra pitcher.
Schwarber hit five home runs in last year’s playoffs. As a rookie in 2015, Schwarber hit .246 with 16 homers.
Schwarber made his major league debut in June of last year at Cleveland as a designated hitter and in two games went 6-for-9 with a homer and a triple while knocking in four runs.
“When you see his name in the lineup, there’s some scariness to that,” Cubs shortstop Addison Russell said. “We might turn it up another notch, especially with a guy like that who is high energy.”
The Cubs have not played in the World Series since 1945, making Tuesday’s contest their first in the championship final to be televised. Some have considered the team cursed given the near-misses and sometimes woeful seasons that have come over the past 71 years.
But the Indians enter the “Drought City” Series having not won the crown since 1948, the second-longest wait in baseball, and with Cleveland having gone 52 years without a sport champion in any league until the Cavaliers beat Golden State in last June’s NBA Finals.

Eddie Jones names his England squad for the end-of-year internationals on Wednesday, with a raft of injuries posing problems for the Australian coach.
Some 10 players who might have been involved for England’s upcoming matches against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia at Twickenham in November and December are sidelined.
Jones has won all nine of his Tests since taking charge of England following the then hosts’ first-round exit at last year’s World Cup.
But he will have to field a rejigged side when England line-up against the Springboks on November 12.
In the back-row, England will be without James Haskell, Jack Clifford, Sam Jones and Mike Williams.
Former England captain Chris Robshaw made his name as an openside flanker but Jones has repeatedly made it clear he sees him as a blindside loose forward.
But the former Australia and Japan coach may yet have to revise his stance.
Meanwhile, injuries also mean England will be without Jones’s first-choice lock pairing of Maro Itoje and Saracens team-mate George Kruis.
As a result, Joe Launchbury and Courtney Lawes — England’s lock duo at the World Cup — could be restored to the second row.
England’s back division has also been affected, with centre Manu Tuilagi (groin), and wings Jack Nowell (thigh) and Anthony Watson (fractured jaw) also out of action.
Semesa Rokoduguni, Marland Yarde and Jonny May will be vying for the vacant wing berths.

Vincenzo Nibali threw down the gauntlet to Tour de France champion Chris Froome on Tuesday, challenging the Briton to ride next year’s centenary Giro d’Italia.
Italian Nibali, who claimed his second Giro triumph ahead of Colombia’s Esteban Chaves earlier this year, is expected to duel with former Astana teammate Fabio Aru for victory next May in the 100th edition on the Giro, whose route was unveiled in Milan on Tuesday.
“(It’s) a difficult Giro, very complicated. You will have to take it day by day and try to save as much energy as possible early on,” said Nibali, 31.
Although Froome said he will not ride the Giro because it would affect his preparations for the Tour de France, the Kenya-born Briton recently hinted on Twitter that the route for next year’s Giro was tempting.
If Froome does change his mind, the Team Sky leader would be returning to the race for the first time since 2010 when he was disqualified for hanging on to a police motorbike on the Mortirolo climb, which will feature next year in what looks to be a thrilling final week in the mountains.
Nibali, who suffered the same fate as Froome when he was thrown off the Tour of Spain in 2015, will race on his native Sicily on stages four and five urged Froome to return to the Giro.
“I think for him, even if it’s just one time in his life, he should come and try the Giro d’Italia,” added Nibali, who won the Tour in 2014.
“He would realise how much affection there is here, how much love there is for cycling and how important the Giro is.
“If he came, we’d all be happy.”
Race director Mauro Vegni hopes the prospect of winning the centenary edition is enough to entice more high-calibre riders.
“I think we’re right when we say the Giro d’Italia is the ‘toughest race in the world, in the world’s most beautiful place’. It summarises the Giro d’Italia, especially for the 100th edition,” said Vegni.
“We have created a wholly Italian race that visits as much of the country as possible to celebrate the race, and also the history of Italy and especially the Giro d’Italia.”
Froome’s participation at the Giro would prove a huge boon for organisers, although the three-time Tour de France winner is instead expected to focus all his energy on winning a fourth yellow jersey.
It would leave Nibali as the top dog, with Aru just one of several challengers looking to succeed him in the pink jersey.
Nibali, who will race for Bahrain-Merida next year, said he was excited by the prospect of racing in his native Sicily.
“It’s a unique occasion, it’s the 100th edition, it comes to my island, my region and my city,” he said.
“It’s very interesting. I like it.”

The two co-mayors of Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish-majority city in southeast Turkey, have been arrested as part of a “terrorism” enquiry, security officials said.
There was a heavy police presence around the town hall following the arrests of Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli, who together lead a city that has been rocked by clashes between security forces and members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Dozens of police were surrounding the town hall with light armoured vehicles and trucks loaded with water cannon as officers searched the building, an AFP correspondent said.
Kisanak was held at the local airport and Anli at his home, officials told AFP.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly warned that local officials accused of offering logistical help to the PKK — which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation — would be prosecuted.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) condemned the arrests and called for supporters to join a protest at 0800 GMT Wednesday.
“We condemn the arrests of Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli. We demand their immediate release,” the party said on its Twitter feed.
Around 200 people, including HDP lawmakers, gathered near Diyarbakir town hall late Tuesday to protest the arrests.
Last month, 24 mayors suspected of links to the PKK were suspended and replaced with officials close to Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The controversial move sparked fresh clashes, with one of the new administrators shot dead in Van, eastern Turkey, on October 16.
More than 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK first took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds.
Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights.
Violence flared again between Kurdish rebels and government forces last year, shattering a 2013 ceasefire reached after secret talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish state.

The man, whose identity was not revealed, was arrested at dawn in his house at Orebro, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) west of Stockholm.
The suspect came to Sweden in 1998 and was naturalised in 2006.
The three-month orgy of killing was triggered by the shooting down of the plane of then president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, in April 1994.
Sweden sentenced to life imprisonment two other naturalised Rwandans Stanislas Mbanenande and Claver Berinkidi, in 2014 and 2016 respectively, for their roles in the genocide.
Similar sentences have been handed down in other European countries, the United States and Canada.

Spanish police said Tuesday they had detained one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives, who fled the country in 2008 after allegedly raping a woman and was found working in Tenerife.
Mohammed Jahangir Alam, a Bangladeshi who had been living in Britain on a temporary visa, was convicted in absentia in 2010 for the alleged sexual assault, and sentenced to 14 years in jail.
“The fugitive was tracked down at his work place, a restaurant where he was eventually detained,” Spanish police said in a statement.
They added he had fake ID on his arrest in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, part of Spain’s Canaries off the coast of Africa. It was unclear exactly when he was detained.
A Spanish police spokeswoman told AFP he had fled Britain in 2008.
Mohammed Jahangir Alam, believed to be 32, was arrested as part of Operation Captura, a joint campaign by Spanish and British police to detain people in Spain who are suspected of committing crimes in Britain.
Last week, as Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and Crimestoppers, a police-backed British charity that appeals for help in solving crimes, marked the operation’s tenth anniversary on Spain’s southern Costa del Sol. They said 76 fugitives had been apprehended out of 86 publicised.
Since then, Matthew Sammon, a 45-year-old man accused of taking and possessing indecent photos of children, has been arrested in Spain.
Like Mohammed Jahangir Alam, he also figured on Operation Captura’s top ten list of most wanted fugitives in Spain.
Others on the list are accused of crimes ranging from murder, violent assault to drug trafficking and money laundering.
Matthew Burton, head of the NCA’s UK fugitives unit, said many British fugitives are attracted to Spain, where it is estimated 800,000 to a million Britons live as expatriates.
“It’s been a magnet,” he said.
“It’s easy as a fugitive to blend in and conceal yourself.”
He said the highest number had been found in Spain, but Britons who had allegedly committed crimes also fled to Cyprus, Portugal and Italy.

Russian documentary director Vitaly Mansky said Tuesday that eight Moscow cinemas have refused to show his acclaimed documentary shot in Pyongyang after it sparked anger in North Korea.
The director told AFP that eight cinemas controlled by Moscow city authorities have refused to air the documentary “Under the Sun” set for release on Thursday.
“Russia obeying the demands of North Korea is nonsensical,” he said, adding that “the cinema community is watching this quite attentively.”
The film was shot with funding by Russia’s culture ministry and initially with Pyongyang’s backing.
But North Korea then dropped the project — for reasons Mansky says are unclear — and he completed it using footage that had been filmed there covertly.
The film shows a young schoolgirl at showpiece sites in Pyongyang with classmates and parents. But the director exposes the highly staged nature of the scenes by keeping the camera rolling between takes.
Mansky is one of Russia’s best-known documentary makers, whose subjects have included President Vladimir Putin and the Dalai Lama. He runs the annual ArtDocFest festival which has aired documentaries on the conflict in Ukraine including the Kiev perspective.
Russia, which shares a border with North Korea, issued high-level criticism of Mansky for making the film.
Mikhail Shvydkoi, former head of the federal cinema agency and now presidential special advisor, wrote in government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta in November that Mansky was aware those filmed in North Korea would face “inevitable punishment.”
The culture ministry asked to be removed from the titles, Mansky said. Nevertheless it gave it a release certificate in May.
A North Korean website in May reportedly interviewed the girl’s mother who condemned Mansky for using them in a film critical of the regime.
Mansky told AFP that he heard from his contacts that North Korea wrote to the Russian foreign ministry about the film.
In the latest debacle, Mansky said the film’s distributors Drugoye Kino told him seven cinemas in the Moskino municipal chain and a city-controlled theatre called Eldar refused to show it.
“I received a letter from the distributors sent to them by Eldar cinema which says clearly that it was an order from the Moscow culture department,” Mansky said via Skype.
Moscow city culture department did not confirm the order, writing in an e-mail to AFP that its chief “Alexander Kibovsky is on vacation and cannot physically sign any order.”
The film is being released in 20 cinemas in Russia including at least three in Moscow according to Afisha entertainment site.

Portland Timbers captain Liam Ridgewell has been arrested for drink-driving after rushing to the aid of goalkeeper Jake Gleeson following a late-night car crash, reports said Tuesday.
Former Birmingham and West Bromwich Albion defender Ridgewell failed a roadside sobriety test after driving to pick up Gleeson from the scene of a two-vehicle accident.
Gleeson also failed a sobriety test, reports said. Both players had refused to be breathalyzed.
Ridgewell, 32, and Gleeson, 26, were booked for driving under the influence of intoxicants and ordered to appear in court on November 16.
Gleeson was also charged with reckless driving and reckless endangerment. A third driver involved in the crash was not arrested.
“The team is aware of the events that occurred last evening involving players Jake Gleeson and Liam Ridgewell and is in the process of gathering information on the matter,” the Timbers said in a statement Tuesday.
“The team has been in close contact with the players, local law enforcement and the league office. The club will not have further comment until more information is available.”
Ridgewell played 22 games for reigning MLS Cup holders Portland this year before they failed to make the playoffs, losing their final regular season game 4-1 against Vancouver on Sunday.
He joined Portland in 2014 after more than a decade in English football, which included spells with Aston Villa, Birmingham and West Brom.
In 2012, Ridgewell gained notoriety after being forced to apologize to fans when photographs emerged of him wiping his backside with handfuls of 20 pound notes.

A Hungarian firm with close government links said Tuesday it has bought the publisher of the country’s top opposition newspaper Nepszabadsag, whose recent unexpected closure has sparked fears of growing state control of the media.
“Opimus Press Zrt announces that it has acquired 100 percent of shares of Mediaworks,” read a statement posted Tuesday evening by the firm on the website of the Budapest stock exchange.
Created earlier this year, Opimus has been linked to Hungarian oligarch Lorinc Meszaros, an ally of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Nepszabadsag’s sudden closure on October 8 came as a shock to its 60-strong staff of journalists who were not given advance warning.
Mediaworks, owned by Austrian magnate Heinrich Pecina, said that halting the left-leaning paper’s online and print operations was done purely for commercial reasons, citing losses in recent years.
But critics insist the decision was a fresh sign of Orban’s push to stifle critical media voices.
Nepszabadsag journalists said the sale confirmed speculation that the newspaper would land in “pro-government” hands.
“Opimus Press has put two people in charge, Janos Loczi and Gabor Liszkay, who ran the openly pro-government newspaper Magyar Idoek,” the reporters said in a statement on Facebook.
The opposition news website 444.hu said it is “unimaginable that Liszkay, a hardline Orban supporter, will publish Nepszabadsag true to its former spirit”.
As the leading opposition paper, Nepszabadsag — meaning “Freedom of the People” — had published several news scoops that embarrassed the right-wing government, especially in the run-up to the recent anti-migrant referendum.
Since the paper’s closure, Nepszabadsag staff have set up shop in a makeshift office donated by a sympathetic company in Budapest, as they consider their next moves.

Ireland will bid to host the European Union’s banking regulator when it is forced to leave Britain following its exit from the bloc, the Irish department of finance announced on Tuesday.
The European Banking Authority (EBA), currently headquartered in London, is responsible for harmonising and integrating banking supervision across the EU member states.
It will have to relocate to another state within the EU once Britain leaves the EU following the Brexit referendum vote on June 23.
Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan said: “Preparations must be made for eventualities such as the relocation of certain European agencies such as the European Banking Authority.
“Ireland has a significant financial services sector, efficient transport links to other European capitals and the capacity to absorb the European Banking Authority’s relocation to Ireland,” he said.
Ireland would be “an ideal new home for the staff of the EBA,” he said.
A number of other EU member states are interested in hosting the EBA, including Frankfurt which already hosts the European Central Bank, the EU’s insurance regulator EIOPA and 198 banks.
Ireland has already made a bid to attract Britain-based companies that are concerned about their business following Brexit, as well as British scientists who want to continue to receive EU research funding.

The train that derailed in Cameroon last week killing 79 people was travelling “abnormally” fast before the crash, a senior executive from the rail operator’s French parent company told AFP on Tuesday.
“On part of the tracks approaching the station where the derailment occurred, we had speeds that were abnormally high compared to the speeds we should have had,” said Eric Melet, head of Bollore Africa Railways.
A judicial enquiry has been launched into the accident which also injured about 550 people.
Melet said trains travelled at between 40 and 50 kilometres per hour in “slow zones” such as approaches to railway stations.
“But we have indications which seem to show that the approaching train was travelling at between 80-90 kilometres an hour when it should have been much less.”
The train was travelling from the capital Yaounde to the economic hub of Douala and came off the rails near the central city of Eseka.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the opposition-majority legislature Tuesday of staging a “parliamentary coup” after lawmakers voted to put him on trial amid a tense political and economic crisis.
Accused by the legislature of “abandoning his post” and “criminal and political responsibility” for Venezuela’s descent into crisis, Maduro fired back by calling a meeting of his National Defense Council on Wednesday — the same day the opposition plans massive anti-government protests.
“We will not permit a parliamentary coup of any kind,” he told cheering supporters at a rally in Caracas, after jetting back from an international tour.
Lawmakers earlier voted to open a “political and criminal trial” against Maduro over what they themselves have declared a coup: authorities’ decision last week to halt their efforts to call a referendum on removing the leftist leader from power.
It is unclear what impact Tuesday’s legislative vote will have. The Supreme Court — which the opposition claims Maduro controls — has ruled the National Assembly’s decisions invalid.
Maduro accused the “useless” legislature of trying to “harm Venezuela,” and urged his opponents to agree to talks.
The offer to open talks has sown deep divisions in the opposition.
On Monday opposition leaders first accepted and then rejected a proposal by Pope Francis for a “national dialogue” on Venezuela’s crisis.
Some top opposition leaders said they had only learned on TV about the proposal to hold negotiations on the Caribbean island of Margarita starting Sunday.
The rift lay bare the tension in the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), a shaky coalition united mainly by shared hatred of Maduro.
Leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles accused Maduro of using the pope’s goodwill for his own ends.
“What you must know is that we in Venezuela are fighting against Satan. This is the devil we’re facing, they are devils. They believe in nothing, they have no principles. They say they’re Christians when it’s convenient,” he said.
Political analysts were meanwhile skeptical about the prospects for talks to resolve the crisis.
“Even if Pope Francis comes here dressed up as Superman, dialogue won’t resolve” Venezuela’s problems, said political scientist Nicmer Evans.
The MUD said Monday it would only agree to talks if the government respected the constitutional right to a referendum and freed its imprisoned activists and leaders, among other demands.
Analysts have warned of a risk of violent unrest in Venezuela. Clashes at anti-government protests in 2014 left 43 people dead.
On Monday a students’ group said 27 people were injured in clashes with police at a protest in the western city of San Cristobal.
Hit by the fall of global oil prices, Venezuela’s economy has crashed, sparking protests and looting driven by shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.
Maduro calls the economic crisis a capitalist conspiracy.
His opponents say it is the result of severe mismanagement during 17 years of socialist rule under Maduro and his late mentor, Hugo Chavez.
In recession since the beginning of 2014, Venezuela’s economy is facing a contraction of 10 percent this year and inflation of 475 percent, rising to 1,660 percent next year, the IMF forecasts.
A recent poll found more than 75 percent of Venezuelans disapprove of Maduro.
The center-right opposition rode that discontent to a landslide win in legislative elections last December — only for the Supreme Court to block its every move in the National Assembly.
Tension is set to rise again Wednesday — the day the opposition was to have begun collecting the four million signatures needed to trigger a recall referendum.
Instead, the opposition now plans massive nationwide protests, even as Maduro huddles with his so-called National Defense Council, which includes the heads of the various branches of government.
Maduro meanwhile flexed his muscle Tuesday with a rally of thousands of supporters, almost immediately after arriving home from his trip abroad.
Besides meeting Pope Francis — with whom he said he had a “deeply human, spiritual conversation” — Maduro pushed leaders in the Middle East to cut oil output in hopes of raising prices.
He also made an unscheduled stop in Portugal to meet future UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.

A group of Angolan lawyers has filed a landmark petition challenging veteran leader Eduardo dos Santos’s nomination of his daughter, Africa’s richest woman, as the head of the national oil company.
Isabel dos Santos was named head of troubled oil firm Sonangol in June in a move that some analysts see as the first sign of succession plans for Angola’s iron-fisted ruler.
“The Supreme Court has accepted our suit and it’s a very important step. It is the first time that the court will examine a decision of the president,” said David Mendes, a spokesman for 12 lawyers who filed the petition.
“The law stipulates that public officials cannot nominate or allow the nomination of family members,” he told AFP on Tuesday.
Mendes said the court had given dos Santos and his daughter eight days to respond.
Nicknamed the “Princess”, the 43-year-old Isabel has been ranked by Forbes magazine as the richest woman on the continent with a fortune of around $3 billion (2.6 billion euros).
She owns stakes in several companies in Angola and former colonial power Portugal, notably in the banking and telecommunications sectors.
Her new powerful role at Sonangol may position her for political office in a country ruled by her father for 37 years.
A member of the ruling MPLA party said dos Santos would not appear in court in person but would send a legal representative.
“The constitution of Angola is clear: the president does not have to personally explain actions taken during his term in court or in parliament,” the member said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Three years ago the president appointed his son Jose Filomeno dos Santos to chair the country’s $5 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Sonangol has been mired in financial difficulties since the fall in global oil prices.
The southern African country’s vast oil wealth has not trickled down to the masses and both dos Santos and his family are accused by critics of amassing huge wealth by siphoning off state funds.

The United Nations’ refusal to recognize its legal responsiblity for Haiti’s cholera epidemic is a debacle that must be turned into a success story, a UN expert said Tuesday.
The world body must set up a procedure to settle claims by the families of thousands of victims killed by cholera, said Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur for extreme poverty and human rights.
Alston addressed a General Assembly committee as the United Nations was preparing to roll out an aid package of about $200 million to help the families of cholera victims.
The United Nations has admitted that it has a moral responsibility to help Haiti deal with the epidemic blamed on UN peacekeepers who were sent to the Caribbean country after the 2010 earthquake.
But the world body has refused to recognize that it is legally responsible and has ignored lawsuits filed by victims that have been rejected in US courts after the United Nations invoked diplomatic immunity.
Alston said the refusal to acknowledge responsibility was “morally unconscionable, legally indefensible, politically self-defeating and entirely unnecessary.”
The United Nations “must turn the Haiti debacle into a success story,” he said.
It must come up with a procedure to resolve the claims and urge member states to make generous contributions to the trust fund set up for Haiti’s cholera victims, he said.
About 9,300 people have died of cholera and 800,000 have been affected since the outbreak in 2010. There are still 500 new cases of cholera reported every week.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has expressed regret but has not formally apologized for the disaster, is due to unveil the aid package for Haiti in the coming weeks.
“The organization’s legal position does not prevent us from taking effective steps for addressing the issue of cholera in Haiti,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
He said the United Nations was acting with compassion and showing solidarity.

Six reporters, photographers and media chiefs are to be tried in France for invasion of privacy over topless photos of Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge published in 2012, judicial sources said Tuesday.
The snaps of Kate, the wife of Prince William, were taken with a long lens and showed her topless on a balcony of a private residence in the south of France during a holiday with her husband.
The photos, which first appeared in French celebrity magazine Closer in September 2012, sparking fury from the British royal family and reviving a debate on press intrusion into the private lives of celebrities.
Closer’s chief editor, the head of the Mondadori press group which owns the magazine, two photographers of a Parisian agency and a photographer and a senior figure at regional daily La Provence will now have to answer in court over the publication of the intimate photos, under a July magistrate’s order.
The pictures in question first appeared on the front page of the regional daily in southern France on September 7, 2012, before Closer gave them a wider audience a week later.
The directors of La Provence have denied that one of their photographers took the offending pictures.
The topless images were later published elsewhere in Europe, notably in Chi magazine, also owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Mondadori media group, as well as in Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden.
The royal couple had lodged a complaint over the pictures.
The royal family’s lawyers obtained a civil injunction and sought criminal charges in Paris in a bid to curb the spread of the pictures.
The pictures revived debate about invasions of privacy by the press and brought echoes of the hounding by paparazzi endured by William’s mother, Princess Diana, who died in Paris in 1997 after the car she was in crashed while fleeing scooter-riding photographers.
The French trial for the Kate photos will be held some time next year.

Venezuela’s opposition-majority legislature voted on Tuesday to open a political trial against President Nicolas Maduro, who is resisting efforts to remove him from power in a volatile political crisis.
A majority of lawmakers in the National Assembly voted in favor of a motion to launch a “political and criminal trial” against Maduro after he blocked their drive for a referendum on removing him.
They voted to summon Maduro to appear before the assembly on November 1 to answer charges of “criminal and political responsibility and of abandoning his post.”
It is unclear what impact the vote will have. The Supreme Court — which the opposition claims Maduro controls — has ruled the National Assembly’s decisions invalid.
The center right-dominated opposition blames Maduro for a dire economic crisis in the oil-rich nation.
Hit by the fall of global oil prices, Venezuela’s economy has crashed, sparking protests and looting driven by shortages of food, medicine and basic goods.
Maduro calls the economic crisis a capitalist conspiracy.
The opposition called for the political trial after courts and electoral authorities last week annulled their bid to hold a recall referendum against him.
Maduro met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday and said afterward that he had the pope’s blessing to launch a “dialogue” with the opposition.
Leaders of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) dismissed that as a ploy, insisting they had not agreed on terms for talks with the government.
The MUD has called for nationwide street protests from Wednesday to raise pressure on Maduro.
The president landed back in Venezuela on Tuesday after a tour to the Middle East, the Vatican and Portugal, television pictures showed.
He was expected to join his supporters in a rally in Caracas on Tuesday.
Analysts have warned there is a risk of violent unrest in the South American country of 30 million people.
Clashes at anti-government protests in 2014 left 43 people dead.

Giro d’Italia organisers unveiled an epic route on Tuesday for next year’s centenary edition that could entice the country’s top two riders into a thrilling duel.
The May 5-28 Grand Tour starts with three stages in Sardinia, home of 2015 runner-up Fabio Aru, before hopping across the Mediterranean for two stages in Sicily, where reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali was born.
The 100th edition, which will pay homage to Italy’s greatest cyclists, will then snake its way up the boot of Italy before cutting inland to begin a series of spectacular and gruelling mountain stages.
While Italian legends like Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Felice Gimondi and Marco Pantani will be honoured by stages starting or finishing in their home towns, the underlying wish of organisers is to see two-time champion Nibali battle it out with former Astana teammate Aru for the pink jersey on the draining climbs and hairy downhill finishes.
The route features four mountain-top finishes, six stages for the sprint specialists and two time trials.
Nibali, who will race for Bahrain-Merida next year, said he was excited by the prospect of going at it in Sicily.
“It would be great to wear the pink jersey there, but let’s see what happens,” he said at the official race presentation in Milan.
When the route was leaked two days ago it also grabbed the attention of three-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome.
Although the Briton has previously said he will not ride the Giro because it would affect his Tour preparations, he posted a picture on Twitter of a cartoon character, surrounded by love hearts, with the message: “Looking at the leaked 2017 @Giroditalia route like.”
The first week climaxes with a 14-kilometre climb to Blockhaus, at 1,674 metres, on stage nine.
The first time trial comes after the second rest day and will be held over 39.2 km in the Sagrantino wine-growing region.
Stage 11’s ride from Florence to Bagno di Romagna will pass through the birthplace of three-time champion Bartali.
Two days later, five-time winner Coppi will be recognised when stage 13 ends in Tortona, where he died in 1960.
After a rest day in Bergamo, the birth place of three-time race winner Gimondi, the peloton will look ahead to the decisive final week with trepidation.
Despite only two summit finishes in five days of climbing the pink jersey contenders are in for a punishing final week.
On stage 16 they will tackle the Mortirolo, then the Stelvio — from the more difficult Italian side — before turning back and riding back up the Stelvio via the Umbrail Pass on the Swiss side of the border.
Contenders face a potentially decisive stage 18 in the Dolomites, with four mountain passes.

Like you may have come to expect every month, here is a chance to get valuable pearls of wisdom from top magnates and entrepreneurs, who have overcome various challenges to become forces in their respective fields.
This month, , founder and CEO spoke on the show and here are 15 things you can learn from that interview:
1. Home is where the talent is: According to the music mogul, he grew up in a very musical family where he learnt everything he knew about music from his father teaching us that sometimes you can find talent at your most comfortable location.
2. : Don Jazzy was once a security guard, worked in MacDonald’s and also spent long hours waiting in line to get a job on a construction site in the UK before finding his feet in the music business. Your current situation does not determine your final outcome so keep pushing until that break happens.
3. : The worst day in business for Don Jazzy was the decision to end the decade long relationship with former business partner D’banj. It is important to build strong relationships if we want to succeed in business.
4. : According to Don Jazzy, staying with his African roots and making music for the continent was more important than joining an international label which his former business partner wanted to do. Always stick to what gives you the most advantage and you will succeed.
5. : Don Jazzy never expected his beautiful relationship with D’banj to ever end but it did and it changed the course of life. Change happens. Always be prepared for it.
6. : It is important to always have a plan B. When MO Hits records ended, Don Jazzy created the Supreme Mavin Dynasty and rebranded himself and his team to take them to the next level.
7. : According to Don Jazzy, a major problem was the media and how much influence they had on the relationship drama with his former partner. Given the fact that the media is a strong driving force in the entertainment industry, you have to know how to take the good with the bad.
8.   : When everything failed, Don Jazzy had to introduce a new product to the market and the Mavin’s were born. Having the right product for your target audience is King!
9. : As the Mogul puts it, he has never stopped working hard and that is true for any entrepreneur in any market.
10. : Even though his first label ended, Don Jazzy does not regret what happened because otherwise he would not have his new artists. Failure teaches us a lot and it is important to learn from it because every negative situation makes way for a new opportunity.
11. : Never follow money but rather focus on what you are most passionate about and the money will follow and that is exactly what Don Jazzy did.
12. : The mogul recommends staying humble and level headed if you want to succeed in business. Respect for your elders is as important in the world of business as it is in our daily lives.
13. : From the world of music our mogul has secured a lucrative brand endorsement with Johnny Walker Blue Label in their latest campaign Joy will take you further proving that you truly cannot rely on just one market and one product.
14. : “,” says Don Jazzy. He believes his talent and gifts are given to him by God so you need to be thankful to Him always.
15. : Self-belief is very important as an entrepreneur because you are the only one that can make that vision you have become a reality.

Iraqi forces were inching to within striking distance of eastern Mosul Tuesday as coalition defence chiefs gathered in Paris agreed to also take on the jihadists’ Syrian bastion of Raqa.
With the Mosul battle in its second week, French President Francois Hollande called for the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group to prepare for the aftermath and the next stages of the campaign against the jihadists.
The United Nations said it had received reports of a new series of atrocities by the jihadists as troops close in on its last major urban stronghold in Iraq.
Forces from the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) retook areas close to the eastern outskirts of Mosul.
“On our front, we have advanced to within five or six kilometres (three to four miles) of Mosul,” their commander, General Abdelghani al-Assadi, told AFP.
“We must now coordinate with forces on other fronts to launch a coordinated” attack on Mosul, he said, speaking from the Christian town of Bartalla.
Kurdish peshmerga forces are making gains on the northeastern front, but federal forces advancing from the south have some way to go before reaching the outskirts.
“All axes of advance have made the progress we expected at this stage of the operation, some are ahead of schedule,” said Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition.
Meanwhile, thousands of men from the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary umbrella group dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militias were preparing for a push to the west of mainly Sunni Mosul.
The Hashed’s mission will be to “cut off and prevent the escape of (IS) towards Syria and fully isolate Mosul from Syria”, said Jawwad al-Tulaibawi, spokesman for the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia.
“We expect that it will be a difficult and fierce battle,” he said.
Iraqi Kurds and Sunni Arab politicians have opposed the Hashed’s participation in the operation, as has Turkey, which has a military presence east of Mosul despite repeated demands by Baghdad to withdraw its forces.
Tensions have risen between Baghdad and Ankara, whose foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, warned Tuesday that if there is a threat to Turkey, “we are ready to use all our resources including a ground operation”.
As Iraqi forces advance, the United Nations said it has received reports of dozens of execution-type killings by IS in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
Citing preliminary reports, the UN said those killed included 50 police officers who had been held hostage.
In Paris, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was meeting coalition counterparts, including Pentagon chief Ashton Carter, to review the war on IS after more than two years of air strikes, training and on-the-ground military advisers.
Besides coordinating their support for the forces closing in on Mosul, ministers also discussed the Syria side of the campaign and said they were “laying the groundwork” for the isolation of Raqa.
France is keen to tackle Raqa, where the 3,000 to 4,000 IS fighters include a contingent of around 300 French nationals whose potential return to France when the “caliphate” disintegrates is considered a major national threat.
As the ministers met, Hollande warned that “the recapture is not an end in itself. We must already anticipate the consequences of the fall of Mosul.”
“What is at stake is the political future of the city, the region and Iraq,” Hollande said, calling for “all ethnic and religious groups” to have a say in the future running of Mosul.
Seeking to draw attention away from the Mosul campaign, IS has staged attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk and western town of Rutba in recent days.
Jihadists seized two neighbourhoods in Rutba, but officials said that as of Tuesday it was fully back in government hands.
Senior Iraqi and US military officials have reported that IS leaders are already trying to leave Mosul to reach the Syrian side of their “caliphate”.
But an official close to Le Drian said a few hundred IS fighters recently moved in the opposite direction, reinforcing the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 jihadists defending Mosul.
IS had shown increasing pragmatism in recent battles, tending to fall back in the face of superior firepower.
But with its claim to run a “caliphate” losing credibility with every new loss of territory, IS has mounted a fierce and well-organised resistance in the fight for Mosul.
The city is where IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the cross-border “caliphate” in June 2014, and its loss could spell the end of the group’s days as a land-holding force in the Iraqi part.
In Moscow Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov equated US support for Iraqi efforts to recapture Mosul with Russian backing of a Syrian government offensive to seize rebel-held east Aleppo.

Every entrepreneur must ask themselves certain fundamental questions if they want to be successful at running their business. Those questions should get weekly, monthly, or quarterly answers.
By reviewing the work you do and the resulting accomplishments, you can better prepare for what you want to do next and what life throws at you next.
Here are three important questions you must ask yourself, from time to time, as an entrepreneur:
Do not get caught up in the monotony of doing the same thing every other day. Go out and do the things that you enjoy and love.
Instead of getting emotional or dwelling on the disappointments you’ve had to deal with, figure out those moments and discover what you can do better the following month.
Keeping track of what you have put into your business will help you on your path to success. Review your goals and accomplishments and never forget that it is about quality, not quantity.

The Kenya Revenue Authority has nabbed two containers of contraband milk at the Port of Mombasa.
In a press statement, the authority said the goods had arrived at the port on October 1st and the goods had been profiled and targeted by October 17th.
Officers at the port scanned the two containers marked No. SEGU4628096 and TCLU1505551 and the images confirmed that the containers had been loaded with milk powder.
The containers had earlier been declared as containing gypsum in a bid to evade the high tax that milk power attracts.
The classification of milk powder under the Common External Tarrif of the east African Community sees it attract a hefty import duty rate of 60%.
 
According to the statement from KRA, the government stood to lose about 14 million shillings in revenue had the goods been sneaked into the market.
The two containers had been destined for TIRUMALLA Enterprises in Uganda ha KRA has said it will work with Ugandan officials to prosecute the perpetrators.
The recent case follows a number of high profile contraband discovery pointing the lengths at which most tax evaders go to.
It also highlights the extensive improvement on efforts to nab such contraband that are being deployed by KRA. 
Recently, on October 20th, the taxman seized another two containers containing illegal batteries being sneaked into the country.

Manchester United centre-back Eric Bailly expects to return within two months after injuring his knee during his side’s 4-0 Premier League defeat at Chelsea, he said on Tuesday.
“I wanted to thank you for all the messages of support that I received since the injury!” the Ivory Coast defender wrote on his official Facebook page.
“I hope to be able to play again for United and The Elephants before 2 months, God willing. Thanks for always being there!”
The message was accompanied by a picture of Bailly sitting in the passenger seat of a car at United’s training ground, with his right leg in a brace.
A close-season signing from Villarreal, Bailly limped off early in the second half at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, with Marcos Rojo coming on to take his place.
“He is injured and I’m afraid he’s badly injured,” manager Jose Mourinho said in his post-match press conference.
“In his knee, in the ligament area, he feels that is really bad.”
Bailly, 22, joined United from Spanish side Villarreal in June for a reported fee of 30 million pounds ($36.7 million, 33.7 million euros).
The Ivorian has been a virtual ever-present this season, starting all 12 of United’s Premier League and Europa League games and only sitting out a League Cup tie.

The Council of Europe on Tuesday criticised authorities of Bosnian Serb-run entity Republika Srpska (RS) over a decision to honour three convicted war criminals, including wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic.
“The decision… represents a serious blow to reconciliation efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and is an insult to the numerous victims of those crimes who remain traumatised by the violent past,” the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks said in a statement.
“While thousands of victims in the region remain without access to justice and reparation, the focus of the authorities in the whole region should be on ensuring that these victims? human rights are upheld and on fostering harmonious inter-ethnic relations,” Muiznieks said.
At a ceremony on Monday marking the 25th anniversary of the parliament of Republika Srpska, a number of people were awarded appreciation certificates, including Karadzic, his successor as RS president Biljana Plavsic and former parliamentary speaker Momcilo Krajisnik.
All three have been sentenced by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for their role during the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war in Bosnia that claimed 100,000 lives and displaced more than two million people.
Wartime political chief of Bosnian Serbs, Karadzic was sentenced in March to 40 years imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Biljana Plavsic, the only woman convicted by the ICTY, was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2003 after she pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity for a leading role in a campaign of persecution against Croats and Muslims during Bosnia’s war.
Momcilo Krajisnik, wartime speaker of RS parliament, was convicted of persecuting and forcibly expelling non-Serbs and crimes against humanity. Having served two-thirds of his 20-year jail term, he returned to Bosnia in 2013 to a hero’s welcome by fellow Bosnian Serbs.
The international envoy to Bosnia, Valentin Inzko, condemned the move to honour the trio, saying that by “glorifying the war criminals” the Bosnian Serb authorities “have placed themselves outside of the realm of European and civilised values.”
The internationally-brokered Dayton agreement that ended the war in Bosnia divided the Balkans country along ethnic lines into two semi-independent entities: Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.
Bosnian Serbs, led by independence-seeking hardline nationalists, have been defying international efforts to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes committed during the war, accusing the ICTY and the international community of being biased against Serbs.

Alex Ferguson believes Scotland must beat England at Wembley if they are to revive their hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup — and the former Manchester United manager believes they can do exactly that.
Scotland’s two most recent qualifiers saw them manage just one point in games against Lithuania and Slovakia, after a 5-1 win over Malta in their opening group match.
The Scots lost 3-2 on their last visit to Wembley in a 2013 friendly and won 1-0 there in their last competitive match, only to lose 2-1 on aggregate in a Euro 2000 play-off.
“I think they have to win it, but that’s not a problem, they can win it,” said Ferguson, 74, speaking in his native Glasgow to highlight Hampden Park’s status as a Euro 2020 host stadium.
“If you go back to the European Championship a few years ago, they went down there and were very, very unlucky. In the last minute I think it was (Christian) Dailly who had the header that was saved by (David) Seaman. They’ll do well Scotland, they will be fine.”
Scotland’s ticket allocation of 13,700 for the Wembley showdown on November 11 sold out quickly but Ferguson believes even more travelling fans will be in London.
“Scotland always do well against England,” he said.
“It’s always a great incentive, the underdog. And the support will be fantastic — whatever they allocate Scotland it will be treble that. They will find tickets somewhere,” added Ferguson, who was Scotland’s manager at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico following the death of Jock Stein.
Ferguson said his favourite memory from international football’s oldest fixture concerned Scotland’s 3-2 win at Wembley against an England side that only the year before, in 1966, had won the World Cup.
Jim Baxter and Denis Law starred in a famous Scotland win and Ferguson said: “I was originally in the squad when Denis had a knee injury. But he was fit.
“My dad had never been to Wembley and he booked tickets because I was in the squad at the time. To win 3-2 was fantastic.”

The Vatican on Tuesday urged Catholics not to scatter the ashes of the dead after cremation and instead to store them in places approved by the Church.
The new guidelines published by the Church also say that the ashes of the dead should not be kept at home but should instead be kept at a cemetery or other sacred place.
Doing so reduces “the risk of shielding the dead from prayers for them and the memory of their family and the Christian community”, German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the prefect of the doctrinal watchdog, told journalists.
“We also avoid eventually forgetting (them) and the lack of respect which can happen, especially after the passing of the first generation,” he said.
“Conserving ashes in a home is not authorised,” Mueller said.
The Vatican first gave permission for cremation in 1963.
The new guidelines come just in time for “All Souls’ Day” on November 2 when the faithful typically pray for the dead.
“The body is not the private property of the family. A dead person is a son of God. It is part of the body of Christ, it is part of God’s people. It’s for this reason that there is not only private rites for the deceased but it’s a public ceremony,” said Mueller.
Bishops will however be able to authorise exceptions to the new guidelines “in serious and exceptional circumstances linked to local customs and practices”.
The new rules also prohibit the scattering of ashes at sea, said Mueller.
But the guidelines will not be applied retrospectively to the relics of saints whose remains have been preserved over the centuries “to avoid provoking a war between believers”, according to one of Mueller’s aides.
Cremations have become increasingly popular since the Vatican order to allow them was issued a half century ago.
The Vatican has said that cremations “do not touch the soul” and do no “prevent the all powerful God from resurrecting the body”.

Azerbaijan on Tuesday sentenced a pro-democracy activist to 10 years in prison as the ex-Soviet state faces growing criticism over its crackdown on dissent.
A Baku court found Giyas Ibrahimov, a 21-year-old activist who belongs to the NIDA pro-democracy youth group, guilty of drug trafficking.
Human rights activists dismissed the charges as politically motivated, his lawyer Elchin Sadykhov told AFP.
Ibrahimov and fellow activist Bayram Mammadov were arrested in May for painting anti-government graffiti on a monument in the capital Baku to late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, the father of current President Ilham Aliyev.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on authorities to “immediately free” the activists and investigate allegations that they were mistreated in police custody.
Activists have raised concerns over Azerbaijan’s dire human rights record, with HRW in May criticising the country for “cracking down on human rights activists and critical journalists”.
Last month the population overwhelmingly backed constitutional changes extending President Ilham Aliyev’s grip on power in a referendum denounced by opposition and rights groups as a ploy to cement the family’s dynastic rule.
Aliyev, 54, has led the country since his father died after a decade in power in 2003.

Budapest summoned Moscow’s ambassador Tuesday after Russian state TV made what Hungary called “degrading” remarks about its 1956 uprising against Soviet communist rule.
“We will make very clear that we won’t tolerate anyone making degrading remarks regarding the 1956 uprising and its heroes,” the foreign affairs ministry told Hungarian news agency MTI.
Russian state TV had described the armed rebellion as “riots”, during which “thousands of former Nazis were liberated from prison”, as Hungary commemorated the revolt’s 60th anniversary with a large state ceremony on Sunday.
While the Russian word for riots, “pogrom”, does not carry anti-Semitic overtones, the term is tainted with negative meaning in Hungary where hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported and killed by the Nazis.
The public broadcaster also insinuated that the United States and western European countries had orchestrated the uprising.
On October 23 1956, the armed revolt against Soviet communist rule erupted after authorities opened fire on peaceful demonstrators.
After a retreat by Soviet troops signalled an apparent victory by the rebels, the occupying forces returned in early November dooming the revolt to a swift defeat.
Hundreds were executed in its aftermath including Imre Nagy, a reform-minded communist leader who moved to withdraw Hungary from the Soviet bloc.
In a recent survey, half of 1,600 Russians said the Soviet powers had been right to crush the Hungarian uprising.

An Italian naval commander and several other officers are under investigation for manslaughter over a migrant boat shipwreck in 2013.
The Italian navy confirmed the probe, led by Rome prosecutors, to AFP on Tuesday but refused to comment further.
Those under investigation include Catia Pellegrino, the first woman to command an Italian navy vessel, who was awarded the Order of Merit for her work saving migrants at sea, according to media reports.
The probe centres on the sinking of a migrant boat between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013, when 26 bodies were pulled from the water and more than 240 were missing.
A Syrian doctor on board used a satellite phone to tell the Italian coastguard several times that the boat was taking on water, but help did not arrive until after it had capsized several hours later.
The Italian navy vessels Libra and Chimera were in the vicinity but did not intervene initially, apparently waiting for instructions from the Maltese coastguard.
The head of the defence committee of the Italian Senate, Nicola Latorre, commenting in the Messagero newspaper, said Pellegrino and the other officers being probed “are not just innocent, they are heros!”
“Checking to see if there were problems of coordination is one thing, but manslaughter and failing to help someone in danger — there is no grounds for this,” he said.

Mike Sonko and Ciku Muiruri have engaged each other in a vicious Twitter battle that has let both bruised by their sharp words.
While Twitter battles have in the past involved twitter bigwigs and personalities, the past year has seen all that change and more politicians and blue chip companies’ CEOs have become involved.
The most recent case is that of Boniface Mwangi and the vice president and while that is still simmering, Ciku Muiruri picked a fight with the Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko.
Perhaps, Ciku did not intend to have an exchange with Mike Sonko, but she sure knew she had slighted him with her comment.
She was responding to a tweet that was celebrating the expected candidature of Peter Kenneth for the Nairobi Gubernatorial seat.
In a tweet, Ciku Muiruri said’
To which Mike Sonko expectedly took offence and hit back with  blast from Ciku’s past’
‘Kenyans haven’t forgotten the company you keep, you dined and wined with foreign mercenaries. You should focus on clearing your name first’
Ciku Muiruri came back more vicious alluding that the senator was illiterate as she said,
 
 
The evening exchange took a pause there but you can be sure more is to follow. The two have previously had an exchange over Mike Sonko’s daughter.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has called off his official trip to Angola to attend a security summit following the latest terror attack by suspected Al Shabaab militia in Mandera  Town.
in the bloody attack early on Tuesday Morning at Bishaaro Guest House in Mandera Town.
Police reports indicated the militants used improvised devices to break open the metal gates before breaking into rooms and shooting the occupants.
According to a statement released from State House, President Uhuru cancelled the trip to stand in solidarity with the families who have lost their loved ones, and those  injured, as he wishes them  a speedy recovery.
the statement read in part.
 
Uhuru will now be represented at the meeting in Luanda, Angola by his Deputy President William Ruto.
Tuesday’s incident is the third such attack to be carried out by suspected Al Shabaab militia this month.
Last week, a night guard was killed when police guarding Governor Ali Roba’s residence engaged Al Shabaab gunmen in Mandera Town.
Early this month, six people were killed by the militants in a residential plot at Bulla Public Works in the town.

The UN envoy for Yemen on Tuesday presented a proposal to the Huthi rebels and their allies on advancing prospects for peace as protests marred the final day of his talks in Sanaa.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the rebels would give their response to the written roadmap on political and security arrangements in the coming days.
Hundreds of people demonstrated outside the envoy’s hotel in the rebel-held capital, accusing him of siding with the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government and demanding that he leave the country.
“All parties must cooperate fully and swiftly to support political alternatives to secure lasting peace guided by a conviction that violence is never a viable solution,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.
“The previous weeks and months confirmed that there are no winners in war and violence is never a viable solution.”
Among the poorest countries in the Arab world, Yemen slid deeper into chaos in March 2015 when the coalition launched its air campaign to push back the pro-Iran Huthi rebels who seized the capital and many other parts of the country.
Nearly 6,900 people have been killed in the conflict, more than half of them civilians, while an additional three million are displaced and millions more need food aid.
The envoy called for a return to a cessation of hostilities after a 72-hour ceasefire to allow aid deliveries officially ended at midnight Saturday as the two sides traded accusations of violations.
Peace talks held in Kuwait ended in deadlock in August.
The United Nations is pushing a plan that would provide for a unity government, the withdrawal of the rebels from Sanaa and other areas, and the handover of weapons.
“Yemeni men and women have found themselves trapped in a deadly crossfire for too long and they are paying the price for the indiscriminate violence in the country. This must stop,” he said.
Ould Cheikh Ahmed visited the site of a community hall that was bombed during a funeral ceremony on October 8, killing more than 140 people, including the mayor of Sanaa and senior Huthi military officials.
The envoy stressed the urgent need to open up Yemeni airspace to allow commercial aircraft and to allow the evacuation of some of the hundreds of injured for treatment.
The coalition has blocked national carrier Yemenia from operating in Sanaa, saying this was to ensure that the airline was not used by the rebels to transfer arms.

Germany’s foreign ministry Tuesday scrapped a planned symphony performance on the Armenian “genocide” in its Istanbul consulate, sparking accusations that it was caving in to Turkish pressure.
Berlin and Ankara have rowed intensely this year over the sensitive historical question, badly bruising relations between the NATO partners at a time the EU is relying on Turkey’s help to contain massive refugee flows.
The Dresden Symphony Orchestra had sent out invitations for its performance of “Aghet”, about the Ottoman Empire’s World War I-era massacre of Armenians, saying it aimed to “heal the wounds of the Turkish and Armenian past”.
Armenians have long labelled the 1915-17 killings that left some 1.5 million of their people dead as genocide, while Turkey argues it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.
The Dresden Symphony Orchestra had sent invitations to the November 13 show to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Minister of Culture Nabi Avci, German media reported.
But a German foreign ministry source said in a short statement Tuesday that “the facilities in the consulate are not available on November 13”.
“The invitations to the event were issued without the foreign ministry’s involvement.”
German opposition politicians quickly mocked Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for apparently giving in to Erdogan’s government.
“Another kowtow by Merkel + Steinmeier before Erdogan,” tweeted Sarah Wagenknecht, co-leader of the opposition far-left Linke party.
“Embarrassing! Is government policy being directed from Ankara?”
Relations long strained over disputes on civil rights questions in Turkey took a dive after the German parliament in a June resolution declared the Armenia massacre a genocide.
Turkey for months blocked German parliamentarians from visiting German troops at a NATO base in southern Turkey, until Merkel’s government publicly clarified that the vote was non-binding.
Germany is home to a three-million-strong ethnic Turkish population, the legacy of a massive “guest worker” programme in the 1960s and 1970s.
As Europe’s top destination for refugees last year, Germany has relied on an EU-Turkey agreement designed to stop the massive influx of people fleeing war and poverty.
Another major row was sparked by German TV comic Jan Boehmermann who in a so-called “Defamatory Poem” satirically accused the Turkish president of bestiality and paedophilia, sparking a criminal complaint by Erdogan.

News in is that the former boxer is now receiving treatment at the Kisumu District Hospital where doctors are keeping a close eye on her. Her health has been deteriorating since relocating to her village in Siaya with her son.
The well wishers who rushed her to hospital have come out to say that the former boxer needs help as soon as possible. According to Winny Ogolla, a well wisher who soke to the Nation, Congestina’s health has been ignored for some time now and the effects are slowing taking full effect.
 
 
Ms Ogolla said  while also pleading with the public to help out the ailing boxer who was left with nothing.
This is the second time Congestina Achieng is being rushed to hospital since 2013. We are still gathering in more information so keep it here for more updates.

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag on Tuesday urged Washington to extradite the alleged July coup mastermind Fethullah Gulen to avoid damaging bilateral ties, comparing him to slain Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
Turkey wants the US-based preacher to be sent home to face charges of “ordering the July 15 failed coup” during which a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.
“If (Gulen) is not extradited or the process is dragged out, this will have a negative impact on relations between America and Turkey.
“What we want now is for relations not to come to a negative point because of a terrorist. That is our wish,”Bozdag told reporters at Ankara airport, quoted by the official Anadolu news agency.
Gulen strongly denies the accusations.
Bozdag added that “everything Bin Laden represents to the United States, Fethullah Gulen represents for the Turkish state.”
He was speaking ahead of flying to the US where he will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss Gulen and the aftermath of the attempted putsch.
For Gulen’s extradition, the US insists legal provisions must be met.
During a visit to Turkey in August, US Vice President Joe Biden insisted that Washington has no wish to protect anyone harming an ally, while adding that “we need to meet the legal standard requirement under our law”.
But Bozdag said that Turkey had sent all the necessary paperwork for Gulen to be extradited. “For us, the file for the terrorist Fethullah Gulen to be extradited to Turkey is more than what was required.”
Tensions increased in the weeks after the coup between the two NATO allies as Ankara warned relations would be damaged if Gulen was not returned while anti-American sentiment in the country would heighten.

Grace Msalame has announced her quest to lose weight and she is targeting a 10 kilogram loss.
The former TV host who is now the Bamba content manager is already halfway through her target. Grace, announced she has already lost 5 kilograms and she was pretty excited about it.
For those who are admirers of her voluptuous figure, they will have to make do with a leaner Grace though the change is much welcome.
Her five kilograms are not openly evident though that will be son apparent when she hits her target loss of 10 kilograms. The good thing is her figure is curvy as ever and can only get better with a leaner fitter body frame.
Grace Msalame explained her motivation behind the weight loss. She also revealed the secret of achieving such sustainable results.
 
Anerlisa Muigai, the heiress to the Keroche Breweries empire is the inspiration to Grace and she seems she is picking a couple of tabs from her. Anerlisa made news after she had consistently shed her huge frame into a healthier fitter body and maintained it through diet and exercise.
This is the same principle which Grace is following saying it is about 80% diet and 20% exercise.
She joins number of previously plump celebrities who have decided to shed their weight in different regimens for healthier body. Prominent among them is Nazizi, Kalekye Mumo and Naomi Ng’ang’a.
Here is Grace Msalame celebrating her achievements
 
 
 

Members of Parliament on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 directed the Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet to arrest Josephine Kabura, one of the key suspects in the Sh791 million National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.
The National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued the summons of arrest after Kabura failed to appear before them to shed more light on the loss of the NYS millions.
This is the third time the businesswoman has failed to appear before the PAC in connection to the scandal.
PAC Chairman Nicholas Gumbo said.
Kabura has already appeared before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over a controversial affidavit she swore linking several people including former devolution cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru into the deals that led to the loss of the NYS millions.
Waiguru has since denied the claims and maintained her innocence over the scam insisting that she has never met Kabura.
A special audit done by Auditor General Edward Ouko revealed in June that Kabura received Sh1.3 billion in the NYS scam.

US Open champion Stan Wawrinka ended a four-match Swiss Indoors losing streak on Tuesday as he saved face for seeds on a day of first-round upsets.
The three-time Grand Slam winner, who claimed the Flushing Meadows crown two months ago, overcame local wildcard Marco Chiudinelli 6-7 (1/7), 6-1, 6-4 in struggle lasting two and a half hours.
He needed five match points to reach the second round, clinching victory with a 16th ace in a match where he struck more than 35 unforced errors.
Wawrinka had lost at the last four Basel editions in the first round; he has never passed the semi-finals in a dozen previous appearances.
While Wawrinka squeezed through, a pair of seeds made opening exits at an event missing both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal through injury.
Lithuanian qualifier Richard Berankis stunned second seed Milos Raonic 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, while Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller beat sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 6-4.
Wawrinka admitted he was relieved to have sneaked past Chiudinelli, an ATP journeyman ranked 119 and childhood friend of fellow Basel native Federer.
“It was a tough physical and mental battle,” Wawrinka said. “It was a huge fight with Marco, he was playing at home and had the crowd on his side.
“It was so tough to beat him here. He played great and I had to fight, I needed to work hard to find a winning solution.
“The third set was so tight, I’m just very content to get past the first round. I’ll prepare for Thursday and hope to go further in the tournament. The most important thing was to win this match.”
Berankis scored a second career victory over Raonic, who is qualified for next month’s eight-man season finale in London.
“Playing the qualifying rally helped me for sure,” said Berankis, ranked 91 in the world. “My recent results have not been the best.
“I was worried about dropping from the top 100, which would have meant no direct entry to the Australian Open.
“But I got some confidence from qualifying, that’s good when you step on to the court against a top five player. I’m really happy with how I performed today.”
Muller unleashed 17 aces against Dimitrov, produced 44 winners and broke three times against in his upset win over Dimitrov, the world-ranked 18 from Bulgaria.
Muller, 37th in the world, pulled ahead of Dimitrov 3-2 in their career series as he avenged a January semi-final loss in Sydney.
In other matches, Marcel Granollers beat Swiss Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi put out Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) and German Florian Mayer defeated Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4.

Unlike most celebrities who were in a position to help the late Achieng, Sheila has been there since the word go.
The former radio queen had posted a photo seeking help from her fans who she hoped would step in and contribute for the money Prince Abura’s treatment.
 
 
The post shared about 2 weeks ago, an indication that Mwanyigha is one of a kind. With that single post the late Achieng Abura managed to raise Ksh 691,995 before she met her death.
However we are told that Ksh3 Million shillings has been raised already and will be used to help treat Prince Abura.
Not many understand the type of relationship they shared, however it is clear that the TV personality cared and treasured the moments she got to spend with Achieng Abura who was an inspiration to many.

Their escape from jihadist rule was gruelling and their new living conditions hardly better, but the Iraqis fleeing south of Mosul are only the first of a feared massive exodus.
Qayyarah is not only the main staging base for the huge offensive Iraqi forces launched to retake Mosul on October 17 — it is also where displaced families in the area are converging.
“We walked all night to escape the jihadists and just before arriving here, our neighbours were killed in a bomb blast,” said Umm Mahmud, a woman from Hawijah.
Her town lies in an area near Kirkuk on the other bank of the Tigris river and is one of the last bastions of the Islamic State group that took over swathes of Iraq in 2014 and declared an Islamic “caliphate”.
She and her family fled to Qayyarah, an area recaptured from the jihadists a few weeks ago and which is now the main hub behind the southern lines of the Mosul battlefield.
There she joined the growing number of people who are fleeing the fighting and two years of brutal jihadist rule, travelling in the opposite direction to thousands of forces battling their way northward to Mosul.
“An IS member helped us flee. He asked for $100 per person to take us to a nearby village,” said the woman.
They were then left alone to trek through a minefield planted by the jihadists, she said.
Only slightly more than 5,000 people are believed to have fled their homes since the start of the offensive a week ago, but the United Nations believes that more than a million people are still trapped inside Mosul.
When Iraqi forces get closer to the boundaries of the city, aid groups expect a huge outflow of civilians which they fear existing infrastructure simply will not be able to handle.
The Jedaah camp in Qayyarah is run by the authorities of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
It opened on October 19 and is supported by aid groups and the UN’s Children Fund.
A few kilometres (miles) north, the fleeing families are screened at a checkpoint manned by the Iraqi security forces who were herding the newly displaced residents towards Qayyarah.
They left their homes for various reasons, some of them to avoid being caught in clashes between advancing federal forces and die-hard IS fighters.
Others left because of dwindling food supplies.
“If you’re with IS you get everything you need. But the others have nothing to eat because of the blockade,” one of the recently arrived told AFP.
Dozens of civilians huddled together near the camp which was littered with trash, as wind blew in clouds of smoke from burning oil wells and a fire at a nearby sulphur plant.
Most of them escaped the “caliphate” with just one or two bags containing some clothes and other essentials.
“The jihadists fled our village south of Mosul four days ago, slipping out from the Iraqi forces’ siege under the cover of night,” said Abu Jowaher, 27.
“We were left there alone, with no water or food,” he said.
“Some of us decided to leave too and others stayed back to look after the sheep,” he said, as an ambulance returned from the front line to the north.
A small pick-up truck followed behind full of displaced people, including one man still waving his white flag.

Her acting skills have also been the talk of the town as she plays a psychologist in KTN series ‘New Beginnings’ . Her character in New Beginnings, (Julia) is caught in a dangerous love triangle between her, her husband Derek and his best friend Sean.

The love triangle comes about after her husband slips into a 5 year comma and Julia gets married to her husband’s best friend Derek.
Aside from her appearance in ‘New Beginnings’, Maya has been a business reporter and anchor at K24. At K24, she bagged the ‘excellence in journalism for green energy initiatives’ award at the Energy Journalism Excellence Awards, EJEA.
 
She currently hosts the Politically Correct show on TVC.
The brilliant TV Girl recently showed off her bikini body as a way of preaching body positivity and encouraging girls to love their curves.
Here is her post: