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Military sales by the arms industry’s 25 largest companies totaled US$ 361 billion in 2019, 8.5 per cent more than in 2018, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The top five positions are occupied by US defence giants. Together with seven other US companies, they represent 61 per cent of global sales.
After the USA, China accounted for the second largest share of 2019 arms sales by the top 25 arms companies, at 16 percent. The six West European companies together accounted for 18 percent.
The two Russian companies in the ranking accounted for 3.9 percent.
For the first time, a Middle East company has become a top arms supplier in the world.
Edge, based in the United Arab Emirates, occupies the 22nd position, and accounts for 1.3 percent of total arms sales of the top 25 firms.
For senior SIPRI researcher Pieter Wezeman, the high demand for weapons from local governments and the will of the countries in Middle East to become independent from foreign manufacturers are favouring the growth of Middle Eastern companies.
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
Research shows Black alumni may have lower health risks.
By Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal and Guide
It’s the 101st year that we show our appreciation for the military service of the millions of men and women on Veterans Day.
At 16 million, WWII veterans were the largest group of service members who fought to protect democracy and freedom from fascism in Europe and the South Pacific.
Airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines, male and female, served during WWII, and 389,292 are still living.
Continue reading Five Brothers Who Served To Secure American Democracy at The New Journal and Guide.
Ethiopia's Minister of Defence Kenea Yadeta on Wednesday denied allegations that Eritrea is assisting Ethiopia in the fight against Tigray People's Liberation Front or TPLF in the Tigray region.
The statement comes after the Tigray president on Tuesday accused Eritrea of attacking his region at the request of Ethiopia, saying that \"the war has now progressed to a different stage.\"
Up to 200,000 refugees could pour into Sudan while fleeing the deadly conflict, officials said Wednesday, while the first details are emerging of largely cut-off civilians under growing strain.
Communications remain almost completely severed with the Tigray region a week after Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced a military offensive in response to an alleged attack by regional forces.
He insists there will be no negotiations with a regional government he considers illegal until its ruling “clique” is arrested and its well-stocked arsenal is destroyed.
Reports grew of the targeting of ethnic Tigrayans across Ethiopia, the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau said in a Facebook post.
The administration of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, announced rallies in support of the federal government's measures there and in other cities in the Oromia and Amhara regions Thursday, along with a blood drive for the Ethiopian army.
The European Union, the African Union and others have urged Abiy for an immediate de-escalation as the conflict threatens to destabilize the strategic but vulnerable Horn of Africa region.
Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray’s regional government, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, blame each other for starting the conflict. Each regards the other as illegal.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopia's ruling coalition for years before Abiy came to office in 2018 but has since broken away while accusing the prime minister's administration of targeting and marginalizing its officials.
Experts have compared the fighting to an inter-state conflict, with each side heavily armed. The Tigray region has an estimated quarter-million fighters, along with four of the Ethiopian military's six mechanized divisions.
That's a legacy of Ethiopia's long border war with Eritrea, which made peace after Abiy came to power but remains at bitter odds with the TPLF.
[SAnews.gov.za] Chairperson of the African Union (AU), President Cyril Ramaphosa, has been made aware of the growing tension between the Western Sahara and Morocco, arising from a dispute on the buffer zone.
A suspected financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Felicien Kabuga, made his first appearance at a UN court in The Hague on Wednesday after decades on the run.
Felicien Kabuga's a suspected financier of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, which saw 800,000 people murdered, according to the UN.
Kabuga, now in his 80s, is accused of crimes against humanity including genocide.
UN prosecutors also accuse Kabuga of helping create a Hutu militia group and urging the killing of Tutsis through his media company.
He is also accused of helping to buy machetes in 1993 that were distributed to genocidal groups.
He denies the charges.
He is \"very tired,\" said his lawyer, Emmanuel Altit.
Kabuga, one of Rwanda's richest men was first indicted by the now-closed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) two decades ago.
On the run
But he was not arrested until this year in May, near Paris.
He was transferred from France to The Hague in October.
The initial hearing before a pre-trial judge took place at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which has taken on cases left over from the ICTR.
Kabuga spent years on the run using a succession of false passports, with investigators saying that he had been helped by a network of former Rwandan allies to evade justice.
His lawyers argue he should be tried in France but France's top court ruled he should be moved to UN custody.
Kabuga was initially to be transferred to the UN court's facility in Arusha, Tanzania, which took over the ICTR's duties when it formally closed in 2015.
But a judge ruled he should first be taken to The Hague for a medical examination, and it was not immediately known when or if Kabuga might be transferred to Arusha.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Three of the Trump’s appointees, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch are viewed as more likely than their colleagues to support the now lame-duck President’s long-stated desire to kill Obamacare. “Severability is designed to say, well, would Congress still want the statute to stand even with the provision gone?” […]
The post Supreme Court Scheduled to Hear Arguments That Will Determine the Fate of the Affordable Care Act appeared first on The Orlando Advocate.
The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Zimbabwe (ICSAZ) has been admitted to the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) as an associate member, only the second Professional Accountancy Organisation in Zimbabwe to become a member. IFAC is the global organisation for the accountancy profession. It has more than 175 member and associate member organisations in 130 countries and jurisdictions, together representing nearly three million professional accountants. The decision to admit ICSAZ as an associate member was announced following a virtual meeting of the IFAC Council today (Wednesday), which accepted an IFAC board recommendation, made in September, that ICSAZ be admitted as an associate member. Previously the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe was the only local institute belonging to IFAC IFAC membership is a globally recognised hallmark of a high quality professional accountancy organisation. Its requirements for membership include the adoption of international standards and support for their implementation, thereby demonstrating a member organisation’s expertise in and commitment to international standards, best practice and serving the public interest. Commenting on the institute’s admission to IFAC, ICSAZ chief executive Dr.Lovemore Gomera said he was delighted that the institute’s application for membership had been accepted. “ICSAZ as a division is unique within the global Chartered Governance Institute (CGI) in producing chartered governance professionals who are also professional accountants. Our members are able to register as public accountants with the Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB), a body on which ICSAZ is also represented. “It has long been our wish to become members of IFAC, the international accountancy body. Our admission as a member of IFAC is a significant milestone for ICSAZ and confirms our place within the accountancy profession,” Dr Gomera said. Issued on behalf of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Zimbabwe by MHPR Public Relations Consultants, 59 Van Praagh Avenue, Milton Park, Harare. Tel. 2251538-40. 2798761 E-mail: mhamilton@mhpr.co.zw Contact Person: Mike Hamilton (Mobile: 0772 469 801)
Econet has partnered with Alphabet, Google’s parent company to provide new high speed broadband technology which uses beams instead of fibre, Alphabet’s subsidiary, X “Moonshot Factory” said on Tuesday. BY PRIMROSE HAISA “Our ‘Project Taara’ high-speed optical wireless broadband endeavour is working with internet provider Econet and its subsidiaries to begin rolling out its tech across Sub-Saharan Africa,” X said in a statement. “This deployment follows a series of small pilots in Kenya specifically, but now Taara and Econet are ready to start adding high-speed wireless optical links to supplement and enhance Econet service reach more broadly, starting with Liquid Telecom customers in Kenya.” X added: “Taara is yet another approach to extending the reach of broadband networks to parts of the Earth that have typically not had access or high-speed connections, due primarily to infrastructure challenges.” According to X, in a substitute of digging about two weeks to lay fibre cables, the new technology will be organized to connect two points 20 km apart and it currently delivers up to 10 Gbits of internet capacity. X’s Taara is essentially a fibre optic network cable without the cable which uses a narrow, invisible beam of light to transmit data between two terminals that can span up to nearly 12.5 miles, while providing transfer speeds of up to 20 Gbps. This, X said, means thousands of customers or households can be connected while still providing speeds high enough for streaming high-quality video. “Taara’s technology can essentially be used to patch gaps in traditional fibre optic networks, spanning rivers or crossing terrain that would be hard or impossible to span using either under or aboveground cable.” X has been piloting Taara in a number of deployments around the world and is moving towards commercialising the project.
Since the launch, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has expanded. They are expected to grow more in the near future. With time many improvements have been made and together they are making cryptocurrency more lucrative. The year 2020 was a rollercoaster ride for the world. It made the world stagnant for some time and that caused the unemployment of millions of people globally. Governments were left with a public crisis during this pandemic. The public crises emerging from the COVID-19 is no more a problem because cryptocurrency and blockchain technology aided in solving them. The technology that was launched in 2009 has now grown up into a more advanced form. This article will tell you how? Acceptance of cryptocurrency in 2020 will likely nurture the governments and financial institutions to look upon digital money as a way to distribute aid. Those times were a critical phase for everyone so the government had to take steps to help people. The government made use of these virtual currencies in helping people with their daily expenses. Everything was ordered online because of the lockdown. So the bills were paid online as well. People could easily pay those bills with the bitcoin aid they got from the government. The outlook for 2020. By taking the help of these latest innovations people became aware of these. The awareness created further implementations in the post coronavirus world. Here is how. Tracking system. Blockchain is a brilliant technology that has been used in tracking records of various corona patients. In Asia however, the records for the financial aids were saved on this master ledger helping the government in distributing properly. Many insurance companies in the future have decided to use this technology in order to keep track of financial claims. In the future, the governments of different countries will use this leverage blockchain system to track other data as well. In the coming year, there will be a globally distributed ledger database for all the coronavirus patients that will help in all research purposes. It will promote data accuracy and transparency between all countries to conclude better results. Increase in financial services by the institutes. During the pandemic, many people used cryptocurrency for the sake of their health. However, very soon people will use them more because of the feasibility. Banks would jump to provide digital currency services because people want more contactless payments. Digital wallets will emerge to facilitate people during payments that do not include their names. Improvements for frauds. The blockchain keeps the records of people safe and secure. However last year some fraud cases were reported. The competent people in the crypto world have started making modifications to make this system secure. It is comparatively more easy and safe to use. So many people will implement cryptocurrencies as a means of payment so that they can be protected from fraudsters. Advancement in public banking. There are many people with low income and some even do not have
Tiger Woods opened his heart to fellow green jacket winners while serving sushi and fajitas at the Masters Champions Dinner.
NEW YORK — During the COVID-19 pandemic, public life in much of the world has largely ground to a halt. For the two billion people living in conflict-affected countries, however, there has been no lull in violence and upheaval. Some of the world’s conflicts have even escalated or been reignited during the crisis, dealing devastating new blows to infrastructure and health-care systems that were only beginning to be rebuilt. Globally, we continue to invest far more in the tools of war than in the foundations of peace. guest column:Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka As the world awaited the outcome of the US presidential election, no one doubted the stakes. But, even if Joe Biden emerged victorious, Americans must reckon with the fact that nearly 70 million of their fellow citizens voted for a candidate who lacks any capacity for ethical reasoning. Of course, some are working for peace. On March 23, at the outset of the pandemic, United Nations secretary-general António Guterres called for a global ceasefire, in order to enable countries to focus on the COVID-19 crisis and allow humanitarian organisations to reach vulnerable populations. More than 100 women’s organisations from Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen quickly joined the appeal with a joint statement advocating a broad COVID-19 truce, which could form the basis for a lasting peace. It should come as no surprise that women were among the first to support the call for a ceasefire. Last week, governments and civil society came together to mark 20 years since UN Security Council Resolution 1325 first recognised women’s pivotal roles on the frontlines of peace-building efforts. It is women — including young women — who do much of the painstaking, long-term work that underpin high-profile formal agreements, which are still often reached in talks that exclude them. For example, in Syria, women have negotiated ceasefires to allow the passage of humanitarian aid, worked in field hospitals and schools, distributed food and medicine, and documented human-rights violations. In South Sudan, women have mediated and resolved tribal disputes to prevent conflicts from escalating to violence. Women also spearhead the critical work of campaigning for peace, including through education programs, which teach young people that conflict is never inevitable. Feminist organisations have long called for nuclear disarmament, arms control, and the reallocation of funds from the military to social investments. These appeals are essential. But they have gone unanswered. So has the UN’s call for a COVID-19 ceasefire: according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the two months following Guterres’s appeal, armed conflict in 19 countries displaced at least 661 000 people. Unless we listen to women, and shift our investments from war toward peace, the devastation will continue. Enjoy unlimited access to the ideas and opinions of the world’s leading thinkers, including weekly long reads, book reviews, and interviews; The Year Ahead annual print magazine; The Green Recovery special-edition print maga
In summary When the state consolidates inmate fire camps next month, remote Modoc County is left with few resources to prevent and battle its lightning-sparked fires. Nestled in California’s northeast corner, Modoc County calls itself the “last best place.” Home to the sprawling Modoc National Forest and graced with lava flows, cinder cones, juniper flats […]
The post California’s final frontier faces firefighter shortage appeared first on Black Voice News.
… .S. elect its first ever African-American President, Barack Obama. While the … on the deaths of unarmed African-Americans at the hands of law …
President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Wednesday, 11 November 2020, giving an update on the country’s efforts to counter the spread of COVID-19
By Stacy M. Brown - “Especially for those moments when this campaign was at its lowest — the African-American community stood up again for me. They always have my back, and I’ll have yours.” — [...]
Los Angeles County reported 2,152 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 additional deaths on Wednesday,
The post LA County’s surge continues: 2,152 new coronavirus infections appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.
A 25-YEAR-OLD Pfungwe man was allegedly killed by his lover after he caught her in a compromising position with another man in a makeshift tent along Mazowe River. BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA The suspect, Juliet Munhuwa of Gurupira village, under Chief Chitsungo, is wanted by police over the death of her boyfriend Misheck Reza. Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza confirmed the incident. “We are appealing to members of the public who might have information on the whereabouts of the suspect to report to any nearest police station. Violence should never be an option and people should always find amicable ways to resolve their differences,” he said. It is reported that on November 4, at around midnight, Reza went to the suspect’s tent and found Munhuwa being intimate with another man and an altercation ensued. Reza reportedly dragged the suspect out and assaulted her with open hands. The suspect reportedly retaliated and a fight broke out. Munhuwa allegedly picked a stone and struck Reza on the head. The two tussled for a long time before heading towards Chikukwa business centre. It is reported that along the way, the suspect picked another stone and struck the now-deceased on the head before he fell on the ground. After realising that she had committed a crime, Munhuwa returned to the tent where she collected her belongings and fled. Reza’s body was discovered by a villager who alerted the police. The police detected that he had a wound on the head and bruises on the abdomen. The body was taken to Murewa Hospital Mortuary for post-mortem.
THE majority of residents in Zimbabwe’s major urban areas are drinking sewage-contaminated water due to poor management systems by local authorities, Auditor-General Mildred Chiri has revealed in her latest audit report. BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA An assessment by the Auditor-General on six major cities in the country showed that urban local authorities were failing to attend to sewer blockages within 24 hours, resulting in raw sewage mixing with drinking water. This ultimately gives rise to outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, among others. Unattended sewer blockages also result in sewage back-flowing, which further weakens the pipes, according to the audit findings for the period 2013 to 2017 following a public outcry over sewer bursts. “The assessment of the urban local authorities’ management of sewerage system revealed a number of weaknesses which contributed to the increase in the number of sewer blockage complaints from consumers,” Chiri said. “If local authorities fail to attend to blockages within the stipulated eight to 24 hours, raw sewage is lost into the environment before reaching the treatment plants, thereby contaminating water bodies. “According to interviews conducted, engineers cited that they were doing more of reactive maintenance rather than planned maintenance.” Results of the assessment also showed that Harare, with the highest population of over 1,5 million people, records the highest number of sewer blockages on average each year, which places residents in the capital city at high risk of contracting waterborne diseases. The United Nations Environment report of 2013 ranked Lake Chivero, Harare’s main water source, as one of the most 10 polluted lakes in the world. Statistics from the audit show that Harare discharges about 4 000 megalitres of raw or partially-treated water into water systems. In responding to the audit, city fathers blamed residents over sewer blockages, citing dumping of kitchen utensils and other items in sewage pipes as the major contributor to infrastructure damages. Although with a higher population, the audit report said Bulawayo had a better sewer system compared to other councils. In 2013 alone, 560 people died of waterborne diseases, while close to 600 000 others contracted the diseases countrywide. In 2008, five years before the audit, Zimbabwe recorded its worst cholera outbreak, which claimed over 5 000 lives, with Harare’s Budiriro and Glen View high-density suburbs the worst hit. Harare and Bulawayo are staring another crisis due to recurrent water shortages, with Harare declaring incapacitation to buy water treatment chemicals. Last week, Harare City Council confirmed four cases of typhoid, a bacterial infection that can be transmitted through contaminated water. The local authorities do not have modern equipment and technologies for sewer system inspection and maintenance and Chiri stated that the government was losing about US$194 million annually owing to poor sanitation practices. The Auditor-General also noted that poor service
Gaming Giant NetEase Benefits From Pandemic-Stoked Demand - Correct Success Visible China Group/Getty Photos This story is a part of Forbes’ protection of Chinas Richest 2020. See the total checklistright…
DAVID BILLER and MAURICIO SAVARESE SAO PAULO (AP) - Bold styles are usually the talk of the town for Sao Paulo Fashion Week. This year, couture connoisseurs in Brazil's most cosmopolitan city have focused on the models - more specifically, the color of their skin. For the first time, designers in Latin America's largest fashion […]
The post Fashion-Forward: Affirmative Action Hits Brazil's Runways appeared first on Voice and Viewpoint.
As grief and despair over the racially-disproportionate impact of the COVID pandemic and police brutality erupted in unrest across America’s cities this summer, the National Urban League mobilized to channel the protests in the streets into power at the polls.
The post Black Lives, And Black Livelihoods Were At Stake In This Election. Black Votes Determined Its Outcome. appeared first on Los Angeles Sentinel.
Black people are sure to remember the remarks that a triumphant President-elect Joe Biden made shortly after taking the stage to celebrate his victory over Republican Donald Trump.
(Photo Credits: Ernesto Benavides AFP) By Juan Ignacio Chávez In the midst of popular rejection, Manuel Merino has illegally replaced President Martín Vizcarra, dismissed on Monday, November 9 for 'permanent moral incapacity' after an expeditious vote in Parliament. According to specialists, this measure would be […]
The post Coup in Peru appeared first on The New York Beacon.
South Africa recorded 60 more Covid-19-related deaths, bringing the death toll to 20 011.
The alleged financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Felicien Kabuga, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday as he made his first appearance at a UN court after a quarter of a century on the run.
Once one of Rwanda's richest men, Kabuga allegedly helped set up hate media that urged ethnic Hutus to \"kill the Tutsi cockroaches\" and funded militia groups.
Now in his 80s, he was arrested in France in May and transferred to the court in The Hague in October to face charges of a key role in the killing of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The frail Kabuga sat in a wheelchair behind a glass screen in the courtroom, wearing a coronavirus mask. A court official helped him adjust his headphones.
His defense lawyer Emmanuel Altit said Kabuga was \"very tired\" and \"preferred not to speak\" when asked by judge Iain Bonomy if the former businessman wanted to enter a plea.
\"Given the situation, I would be grateful if you could consider this lack of response as a plea of not guilty on all the counts, under the rules and procedures,\" Altit told the court.
Kabuga, who until his arrest near Paris was one of the world's most wanted men, had already denied the charges in his court appearances in France.
The Rwandan faces seven counts including genocide, incitement to genocide, extermination, and persecution.
The UN court will later decide if he will be transferred to its branch in Tanzania for trial.
'Contributed to deaths'
The UN says 800,000 people were murdered in a 100-day rampage that began in April 1994 in Rwanda, in scenes of horror that shocked the world.
An ally of Rwanda's then-ruling party, Kabuga allegedly helped create the Interahamwe Hutu militia group and the Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), whose broadcasts incited people to murder.
The lengthy indictment, read out by a court official, said that \"RTLM broadcasts contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of persons identified as Tutsi civilians.\"
The radio station also identified the hiding places of Tutsis where they were later killed, it said.
Kabuga controlled and encouraged the station's content, failed to stop the broadcasts, and defended it when the minister of information criticized the broadcasts, the indictment said.
He is also accused of helping to buy machetes that were distributed to militias and ordering them to kill Tutsis.
Following his arrest in a small apartment near Paris, his lawyers argued that Kabuga -- who says he is aged 87 but according to the arrest warrant is 84 - should face trial in France for health reasons.
But France's top court ruled he should be moved to UN custody on a warrant issued in 1997 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
But a UN
A bipartisan task force of former presidents has recommended that outgoing commander-in-chief Donald J. Trump be allowed to immediately use all of his accumulated vacation ...
People from the Northeast are as much Indians as the people from the rest of the country
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