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Jurors were sworn in Thursday morning in the civil trial of Kevin Spacey, the Oscar-winning star accused by fellow actor Anthony Rapp of sexual abuse at a New York City party in 1986 when Rapp was 14. Spacey, 63, wearing a gray suit and blue tie, appeared relaxed during the jury selection process. He laughed […]
The post Kevin Spacey’s trial begins nearly five years after Anthony Rapp accused him of sexual abuse appeared first on The Black Chronicle.
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
Protesters gathered outside the Casablanca Appeal Court on Tuesday, as Moroccan investigative journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi appeared to be questioned by an examining magistrate.
Radi was first tried in March and was given a four-month suspended sentence after he was arrested for a tweet in which he criticized a judge for upholding heavy prison sentences against government protestors.
He is charged with \"harming internal security\" and \"receiving foreign funds\". He is also accused of rape. He has been in prison since July 29 and has denied all accusations.
Outside the court, Omar's parents joined journalists and human rights activists demanding the release of Radi and criticizing what they call an attack to the freedom of expression in Morocco.
They also called on Moroccan authorities to drop all the charges against the journalist to allow him to carry on with his work.
Omar investigated suspected corruption and links between political and business interests in Morocco, according to Amnesty International. He was also a prominent critic of the country's human rights record.
Omar's father, Driss Radi said that he does not understand why his son has been detained.
\"All the charges against my son are fabricated and no one believes them\", he added.
Many journalists attended the protest, including Oussi Mouh Lahcen, who said that \"the way the state is dealing with the press now is not bearing fruit\", calling for a change in the authorities' \"approach\".
In January this year, the Moroccan Human Rights League warned of an assault on freedom of expression in the country following the arrest over recent months of 15 journalists, bloggers, rappers and social media users.
In a report published on June, Amnesty International said Moroccan journalist Omar Radi's phone was tapped as part of the government's efforts to clamp down on dissent.
This was \"categorically refuted\" by Moroccan authorities, who said the accusations were \"unfounded.\"
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Chavis and nine others, eight young Black males, who were high school students, and white female anti-poverty worker, were arrested on charges of arson related to the grocery fire. Based on testimony of three young Black men (who later recanted their testimony), they were tried and convicted in state court of arson and conspiracy in connection with the firebombing of Mike's Grocery.
Kevin Sorbo, who played the titular Greek demigod on the ’90s television series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” received an ungodly smackdown on Twitter on Saturday after he mocked Hunter Biden. …
The Lekki tollgate in Lagos, Nigeria's sprawling megacity of 20 million people, has frozen in time since October when security forces shot at peaceful protesters.
Historic Trial For War Crimes in Liberia
Accused of having committed barbaric acts between 1993 and 1995 during the civil war in Liberia, the doubly historic trial of the former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah began on Thursday in Switzerland where he had been in exile for twenty years.
Incarcerated since 14 November 2014, the 45-year-old Alieu Kosiah appeared before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona accompanied by his court-appointed lawyer Dimitri Gianola.
Although the proceedings are not behind closed doors, the number of seats in the courtroom is extremely limited in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Questioned by the president of the court Jean-Luc Bacher, Kosiah — who is the first individual to be tried for war crimes by a civil court, stressed that he had been in prison \"for six years and a month\" and denied all the charges brought against him,
Justice for Liberia Overdue
Both former warlord and president Charles Taylor — who also played a significant role the aforementioned conflict, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone in 2012.
However, no Liberian is yet to be convicted in Liberia or abroad for crimes committed during the West African country's civil war — which saw 250,000 people lose their lives between 1989 and 2003.
Most of the commanders of the various armed groups fled the country after the war.
Kosiah, who had been living in Switzerland since 1999 according to HRW, was arrested following criminal complaints by victims.
Child Soldiers in Civil War
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the victims, who reside in Africa, will not be heard before 2021. This is deplored by the organisation Civitas Maxima, which represents some of them.
\"This is a case where Kosiah claims that they are all lying and that he did not commit any crime. We want this contradictory debate to take place,\" Romain Wavre, a lawyer at Civitas Maxima, told AFP.
The Swiss federal prosecutor's office accuses Alieu Kosiah of having committed, between 1993 and 1995, as a member of the armed faction ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy), a faction of armed groups hostile to the movement of Charles Taylor (the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, NPFL), several offences constituting \"war crimes\". Namely: recruitment and use of child soldiers, forced transportation, looting, cruel treatment of civilians, attempted murder, murder (directly or by order), desecration of a corpse and rape.
War Crime \"Impunity\"
In France, the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office recently requested a trial by jury against another former Liberian rebel commander, Kunti K., accused of acts of torture.
\"Alieu Kosiah and Kunti K. were two of the commanders of the same armed group - ULIMO - and were fighting at the same time in Lofa County in northern Liberia,\" said Wavre of Civitas Maxima.
More than fifteen years after the end of the conflict, many of the personalities directly involved in the civil war still hold important positions in the spheres of
Very little is ever spoken of the fact that a Memphis jury found the United States government guilty of conspiring to assassinate Dr. King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.
Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE UPDATED: 6:50 a.m. ET, an. 18, 2021: Though the United States government has wrapped Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s legacy in the American flag,…
Watch BET UK on Sky 173, Virgin 184 Freesat 140
Judge Jeannice M. Reding set bail for Derek Chauvin at $1 million with conditions during a court hearing Monday, making the former Minneapolis police officer eligible for supervised release.
Chauvin, who is white, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, a black man.
Chauvin, 44, faces a charge of second-degree murder in Floyd's death, along with two lesser counts: third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Eyewitness video from the police encounter with Floyd on Memorial Day shows that Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes, including at least 2 minutes in which Floyd was unresponsive.
As Chauvin appeared in court, Floyd was being remembered at an hours-long memorial service Monday in his hometown of Houston.
… fulfilled they feel with life.
Black Americans continue to die from the … in our communities, in particular African-American and minority communities, particularly at … income gap between white and Black Americans continues to grow, from $23 …
Even as the world awaits the deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine, Africa’s chances at getting a shot remains remote in the short term according to experts.
That, coupled with the need to cushion health systems across the continent from being overwhelmed is the other reason for the deployment of a clinical trial named, ANTICOV – the largest trial targeting mild to moderate cases of the virus.
Why the need for targeted trial According to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, DNDi, ANTICOV’s main goal “is to identify treatments that prevent mild cases from progressing to severe forms of the disease - and thus prevent local health systems from being overwhelmed.”
“Treating mild cases is key in Africa because ICU capacity is not as strong as may be in other developed nations,” a a DNDi statement issued on November 24 stressed. The initiative is working with other partners on this project.
“We welcome the ANTICOV trial led by African doctors because it will help answer one of our most pressing questions: with limited intensive care facilities in Africa, can we treat people for COVID-19 earlier and stop our hospitals from being overwhelmed?” John Nkengasong, head of the African Union’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said of the trial.
Role of hydroxychloroquine
Hydroxychloroquine will be one of the drugs to be studied initially, because there are no large multi- country studies yet about efficacy of the drug for mild cases. HCQ remains the standard of care for COVID in 16 African countries, so this trial will provide key evidence to inform health policies and national guidelines.
One of the key trials that is known to be undertaken in Africa is the World Health Organization, WHO’s solidarity trials but it focuses on severe cases whiles ANTICOV will look more at mild cases with the view to nip the possible transit into severity.
Thirteen countries sign up
Thirteen countries across the continent have signed up for the trial. The majority of these countries are in West Africa; Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. East African countries include, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan and Kenya.
Central Africa has three countries participating – Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mozambique is the sole southern African country to sign up for the trial.
The clinical trial will be carried out at 19 sites continent wide by the ANTICOV consortium, which includes 26 prominent African and global research and development (R&D) organizations, coordinated by DNDi.
Africa’s case load as of December 2, 2020 according to Africa CDC
Number of cases = 2,196,257
Number of deaths = 52,490
Number of recoveries = 1,862,685
Number of active cases = 386,062
Most impacted country = South Africa; 790,004 cases
Least impacted country = Seychelles; 172 cases
Funding for the trial
Major funding for the ANTICOV consortium is provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through KfW and by the global health agency Unitaid a
