Category: International

N’Korea bans laughing, alcohol for 11 days to mark death anniversary of former leader

North Korean citizens have been banned from laughing, drinking alcohol, or showing any form of happiness for 11 days as the country marks the 10th year anniversary of the death of former leader, Kin Jong Il who died in 2011.

Kim Jong Il ruled North Korea from 1994 until his death in 2011, and was then succeeded by his third and youngest son, current leader Kim Jong Un who has now become a maximum dictator.

Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack on December 17, 2011, at the age of 69 after ruling the country for 17 years in a brutal and repressive dictatorship.

The order which was released on Thursday, mandates citizens to observe the “11-day period of mourning where they are not allowed to laugh, drink alcohol or make merriment of any form.”

A North Korean resident who spoke with Radio Free Asia (RFA), was quoted as saying:

“During the mourning period, we must not drink alcohol, laugh or engage in leisure activities.”

The resident added that during the mourning period, “North Korean residents and citizens are not allowed to go grocery shopping, especially on Friday, December 17, the anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s death.”

“In the past, many people who were caught drinking or being intoxicated during the mourning period were arrested and treated as ideological criminals. They were taken away and never seen again,” he said.

“Even if your family member dies during the mourning period, you are not allowed to cry out loud and the body must be taken out after it’s over.

“People cannot even celebrate their own birthdays if they fall within the mourning period.”

Another source, a resident of the southwestern province of South Hwanghae, said police officers were told to watch for people who fail to look appropriately upset during the mourning period.

“From the first day of December, they will have a special duty to crack down on those who harm the mood of collective mourning.

”It’s a month-long special duty for the police. I heard that law enforcement officials cannot sleep at all.’

 

Covid-19: UK Puts Nigeria On Red List As 21 Travellers Contracts Omicron Variant

 

The government of United Kingdom will add Nigeria to its red list following reports of covid-19 Omicron variant confirmed in about 21 travelers from the country.

The new decision was disclosed in an official press release on the UK government’s website which joins Nigeria with Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia.

“Nigeria to be added to the travel red list from 4am Monday 6 December following 21 cases of Omicron reported in England which are linked to travel from this country, with 134 UK cases now reported in total,” it stated on Saturday.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, however made it clear that for now, only Nigerian UK citizens or residents will be allowed entry under strict protocols.

Visitors from Nigeria and those on its red list are not allowed while others must conduct some tests before they can enter the UK.

“In light of the most recent data we are taking further action to slow the incursion of the Omicron variant.

“From 4am Monday, only UK/Irish citizens & residents travelling from Nigeria will be allowed entry and must isolate in a managed quarantine facility.

“And – from 4am Tuesday, anyone travelling to the UK from countries not on the Red List will be required to take a pre-departure test, regardless of their vaccination status,” he stated in a tweet.

Javid also urged the citizens to get vaccinated as a first line of defence.

Recall that the omicron variant was first reported in South Africa on November 24.

Ever since, certain countries have placed travel ban on the country while the Nigerian government has said it stands in solidarity with its South African counterpart.

 

Popular R&B Singer, R. Kelly found guilty in sex-trafficking trial

Popular R&B Singer, R. Kelly found guilty in sex-trafficking trial

 

R. Kelly was found guilty of all charges preferred against him bordering on sex trafficking and related crimes
R. Kelly was convicted by a federal jury on Monday in his sex trafficking trial, where prosecutors accused the R&B singer of exploiting his stardom over a quarter-century to lure women and underage girls into his orbit for sex.

Jurors in Brooklyn federal court deliberated for a little more than one day before voting to convict the 54-year-old Kelly on all nine counts he faced, after a 5-1/2 week trial.

Kelly had been charged with one count of racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.

Prosecutors said Kelly took advantage of his fame and charisma to recruit victims, including some plucked from crowds at his concerts, with the aid of people in his entourage.

Witnesses said some victims had hoped Kelly could jumpstart their careers, only to find he demanded their strict obedience and would punish them if they failed.

Trial testimony from government witnesses portrayed, often in graphic detail, an unseemly side to Kelly’s 30-year music career, whose highlights include the 1996 Grammy-winning smash “I Believe I Can Fly.”

The singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is one of the most prominent people tried on sex charges during the #MeToo movement, which amplified accusations that had dogged him since the early 2000s.

Like Kelly, many of his accusers were Black, differentiating the case from recent #MeToo convictions of comedian Bill Cosby and movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Cosby’s conviction was overturned in June.

Kelly’s alleged victims included the late singer Aaliyah, who Kelly briefly and illegally married in 1994 when she was 15. Aaliyah died in a 2001 plane crash.

Many accusations against Kelly were included in the January 2019 Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”

Several witnesses testified that Kelly instilled fear if his victims did not fulfill his every need, sexual and otherwise.

Jurors heard how Kelly would compel victims to follow “Rob’s rules,” including that they call him “Daddy” and get permission to eat or go to the bathroom.

One witness hoping to interview him for a radio station said he locked her up for at least two days without food or water before assaulting her.

Witnesses also said Kelly pressed accusers to write “apology letters” to potentially absolve him of wrongdoing, and concealed before intercourse that he had contracted herpes.

The racketeering charge gave prosecutors leeway to offer evidence that might otherwise be too old to prosecute.

Kelly did not testify in his defense, which lasted about two days.

His lawyers sought, including during cross-examinations of several witnesses, to portray Kelly’s accusers as former fans who felt jilted when they fell from his favor, and that their sex with Kelly was consensual.

They also tried to show how some accusers stayed with Kelly long after the alleged abuses began, and questioned why they failed to go to the police or waited years to come forward.

On top of the conviction, Kelly still faces federal charges in Chicago on child pornography and obstruction, and state charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

 

VIDEO: Again! French President Macron Assaulted In Public As Man Throws Egg At Him

VIDEO: Again! French President Macron Assaulted In Public As Man Throws Egg At Him

Emmanuel Macron, the French President, on a visit to an international food trade fair was hit on the shoulder with an egg thrown at him by a man.

In the video that has gone viral, Macron was seen walking through the crowd when an egg bounced off him without breaking.

This is coming barely four months after the president was slapped.

 

Two bodyguards can be seen immediately getting closer to the president.

The video also shows a man being taken away from the scene by other bodyguards.

Reporters heard Macron saying “If he has something to tell me, then he can come.”

No details have been released by authorities on the man’s identity or possible motivation.

 

Recall, a bystander identified as Damien Tarel slapped French President, Emmanuel Macron across the face during a trip to southeast France on the second stop of a nationwide tour.

Watch Video Below:

Source: Naija News

Taliban ban barbers from shaving, trimming beards in Afghanistan

Taliban ban barbers from shaving, trimming beards in Afghanistan

 

The Taliban have banned hairdressers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province from shaving or trimming beards, saying it breaches their interpretation of Islamic law.

Anyone violating the rule will be punished, Taliban religious police say.

Some barbers in the capital Kabul have said they also received similar orders.

The instructions suggest a return to the strict rulings of the group’s past tenure in power, despite promises of a milder form of government.

Since taking power last month, the Taliban have carried out harsh punishments on opponents. On Saturday, the group’s fighters shot dead four alleged kidnappers and their bodies were hung in the streets of the western city of Herat.

In a notice posted on salons in southern Helmand province, Taliban officers warned that hairdressers must follow Sharia law for haircuts and beards.

“No one has a right to complain,” the notice, which was seen by the BBC, read.

“The fighters keep coming and ordering us to stop trimming beards,” one barber in Kabul said. “One of them told me they can send undercover inspectors to catch us.”

Another hairdresser, who runs one of the city’s biggest salons, said he received a call from someone claiming to be a government official. They instructed him to “stop following American styles” and not to shave or trim anyone’s beard.

During the Taliban’s first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, the hardline Islamists banned flamboyant hairstyles and insisted that men grow beards.

But since then, clean-shaven looks have become popular and many Afghan men have gone to salons for fashionable cuts.

Many Afghan barbers say their business has dried up

But the barbers, who have not been named to protect their safety, say the new rules are making it hard for them to make a living.

“For many years my salon was somewhere for young people to shave as their wish and look trendy,” one told the BBC. “There is no point continuing this business.”

“Fashion salons and barbers are becoming forbidden businesses,” another said. “This was my job for 15 years and I don’t think I can continue.”

Another barber in Herat said that although he had not received an official order, he had stopped offering beard trims.

“Customers don’t shave their beards [because] they don’t want to be targeted by the Taliban fighters in the streets. They want to blend in and look like them.”

Despite slashing his prices for a cut, his business has dried up. “Nobody cares about their style or hair fashion,” he said.

 

Iran resumes commercial flights to Afghanistan

Iran resumes commercial flights to Afghanistan

Passengers get off from a privately owned Iranian airline Mahan Air flight at the airport in Kabul on September 15, 2021 Afghanistan
Passengers get off from a privately owned Iranian airline Mahan Air flight at the airport in Kabul on September 15, 2021
Iran on Wednesday resumed commercial flights to neighbouring Afghanistan, where the Taliban took control last month.

“Today Mahan Air carried passengers between Mashhad and Kabul airport,” Fars news agency reported, referring to Iran’s second-largest city, in the northeast, and the Afghan capital.

“At present, this airliner is returning to Mashhad with passengers.”

It was the first such flight between the two countries since the return of the Taliban to power on August 15.

The Iranian civil aviation agency had announced the interruption of flights to Kabul on August 16 for security reasons.

Commercial flights resume in Afghanistan after Taliban takeover
Previously, Mahan Air had operated two flights per week between Mashhad and Kabul.

Mahan Air, the second largest Iranian airline after the state-owned Iran Air, has been on the blacklist of entities targeted by US sanctions against Iran since 2011.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Islamic republic hosts more than 3.46 million Afghans, most of them refugees or illegal immigrants, representing more than four percent of Iran’s population.

 

Gaddafi’s son released by Libyan govt after seven years in prison

Gaddafi’s son released by Libyan govt after seven years in prison

Saadi Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi, sits behind bars during a hearing at a courtroom in Tripoli, Libya
Saadi Gaddafi, son of the former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has been released after seven years in prison.

The latest development was confirmed by a Libyan official source and a unity government source on Sunday.

Muammar Gaddafi was outsted and killed during the 2011 NATO-backed uprising. During the fallout of uprsing, Saadi Gaddafi fled for Niger but was extradited to Libya in 2014 and has been imprisoned since then in Tripoli.

Reports say that he immediately departed on a plane to Istanbul after his release.

Deal of the day
Saadi, now 47, was known for his extravagant lifestyle during his father’s dictatorship.

The former professional footballer had been held in a Tripoli prison, accused of crimes committed against protesters in 2011 and of the 2005 killing of Libyan football coach Bashir al-Rayani.

Mike Pence’s Gaddafi comments ‘stupid’, says North Korea
In April 2018, the court of appeal acquitted him of Rayani’s murder.

During the uprising, three of the dictator’s seven sons were killed, and the country has since sunk into chaos, with rival factions vying for power.

A 2020 ceasefire ended the factional fighting and paved the way for peace talks and the formation of a transitional government this March, ahead of elections set for December.

But preparations are marred by disputes between key stakeholders over when to hold elections, what elections to hold, and on what constitutional grounds.

Libya has suffered chaos, division and violence in the decade since the uprising. The Government of National Unity was installed in March as part of a peace push that was also meant to include elections planned for December.

Saadi Gaddafi’s release resulted from negotiations that included senior tribal figures and Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, the official source said. Another source said the negotiations also involved former interior minister Fathi Bashagha.

In 2018 the Justice Ministry said Saadi Gaddafi had been found not guilty of “murder, deception, threats, enslavement and defamation of the former player Bashir Rayani”.

In July the New York Times said it had interviewed Saadi’s brother, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who was held for years in the town of Zintan, as his supporters indicate he will run in the presidential elections planned for December.

 

Taliban Renames Country Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan As US Evacuates Citizens, Others

Taliban Renames Country Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan As US Evacuates Citizens, Others

The Taliban who recently seized power in Afghanistan has renamed it the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’.
The media had been filled with reports that many Afghans in a bid to leave the Middle East country had ran alongside a US military plane as it taxied on the runway while several clung to the side as the jet took off with Senior US military officials.

This online highlights the chaos the country is presently rocked with.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that ousted the insurgents from power did not succeed in completely removing the Taliban’s who had ran the country in the late 1990s.

According to CNN, hundreds of people poured onto the tarmac at Kabul’s international airport, desperately seeking a route out of Afghanistan on Monday after the Taliban’s sudden seizure of power sparked a chaotic Western withdrawal and brought to a crashing end the United States’ two-decade mission in the country.

Speaking yesterday, US President Joe Biden had stated that his country cannot continue to fight a war that Afghanistan are not ready to fight.

According to the president, measures are been put in place to ensure the safe evacuation of US officials and those residents that have been of great help to the US.

He disclosed that additional troops would be deployed to secure the Kabul international airport.

 

‘I Stand Firmly behind my decision’, Biden defends U.S. Decision To Pull Out of Afghanistan

 

‘I Stand Firmly behind my decision’, Biden defends U.S. Decision To Pull Out of Afghanistan

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, on Monday, defended his administration’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan.

Mr Biden, a day after Taliban militants seized control of the country, said he stood firmly by his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, adding that there was never going to be a right time to do that.

He argued in a televised address that he was faced with a choice to either follow through with the drawdown or escalate the conflict into its third decade and ultimately sacrifice more American lives.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” the 46th American president said. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces. That’s why we’re still there.”

“Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country; the Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,” Mr Biden said. “If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.”

He said the 20-year mission was not meant to be about “nation building” or “creating a unified, central democracy”, but was designed to prevent a terrorist attack on American soil.

In Kabul, the Taliban seized power on Sunday following President Ashraf Ghani’s departure from the country, bringing an end to the two decades war.

Less than 24 hours after the Taliban takeover, chaos erupted at Kabul’s international airport as thousands of Afghans raced to flee the country.

A harrowing video on the internet showed Afghans storming the military side of the airport and clinging to a U.S. Air Force plane as it attempted to move down the tarmac. In the video, some people appear to fall to their death as the aircraft took off.

The U.S. president appeared to be caught off-guard by the Taliban’s rapid rise saying

things unfolded quicker than anticipated.

“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” Mr Biden said, noting that his administration was prepared for all scenarios but that the Afghan government and military were unwilling to defend their own country.

“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” he said.

 

Elon Musk’s Space X launches 4 astronauts to Space on recycled rocket and capsule

Four astronauts from three countries bound for the International Space Station launched from the Florida coast early Friday morning as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission.

 

 

 

The Falcon 9 rocket blazed across a black sky just before sunrise and NASA confirmed shortly after liftoff Friday that the astronauts had safely reached orbit.

 

 

After about a 23-hour ride, the Crew Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the ISS around 5:10 a.m. ET on Saturday.

 

 

“Watching a launch from Kennedy Space Center never gets old for me. I’ve watched many launches and watching a pre-dawn launch is especially exciting and just visually stunning,” NASA’s acting administrator, Steve Jurczyk,​​ said at a post-launch news conference Friday morning. “I could not be more proud of the team.”

The crew is composed of NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

“What an incredible launch, hopefully you guys got to watch it this morning, right as the sun was rising we took off,” Kimbrough said from the Crew Dragon “Endeavor” capsule shortly after the astronauts reached orbit.

“We chased the sun pretty quickly and caught up just a few minutes after we took off. That was really special to see the sunlight coming in shortly after liftoff,” the mission’s commander added.

McArther said, “The ascent was incredible, the ride was really smooth. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Friday’s launch marked only the third time that Elon Musk’s private space-faring firm has flown astronauts.

It also ushered in a new era of reusability in human space exploration, as the mission uses the same Falcon 9 rocket that sent four astronauts to the ISS last November and the same Crew Dragon spacecraft that sent and returned two astronauts during the first crewed SpaceX flight last May.

“I met with the crew last night, they are ready to go,” Jurczyk​​ said at a pre-launch news conference from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. “I asked them what they look forward to most in the mission, and they said launching and getting up on station and getting to work.”

This marks the “third launch in less than a year” for NASA’s Commercial Crew program, he said.

The launch was originally scheduled for early Thursday morning but was moved to Friday due to downrange inclement weather. Liftoff occurred at 5:49 a.m. ET on Friday from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Prior to liftoff, the U.S. Space Force 45th Weather Squadron had forecast a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions in the area for a launch.

NASA’s live coverage of the launch kicked off at 1:30 a.m. ET on its website and social media accounts.

Jurczyk said Wednesday that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team received a call earlier this week from U.S. President Joe Biden, who congratulated the researchers on their success in conducting the first controlled flight on another planet.

“He told the team that his grandson asked him when was he going to travel to Mars,” Jurczyk said. “So that’s something really important that we do.”

“We enable commercial activities in space, we demonstrate leadership, and we inspire the next generation,” he said.

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