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Rio de Janeiro's deadliest police raid in history left 25 people dead, including one police officer, on Thursday.
Nationwide protests have taken place since October 7 despite the disbanding of the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
The demonstrators have been accused of attacking police stations and personnel.
The rallies which are mostly attended by young people have become avenues to vent against corruption and unemployment.
Rights groups say at least 15 people have been killed the demonstrations began in early October.
THE Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) is insisting as false, a recent report by Forbes magazine that Canadian marijuana companies have pulled out of Jamaica because of a lack of positive action on the part of the Government and the CLA.
According to the influential Forbes, in a story of May 30, 2020, the cannabis stakeholders exited Jamaica because of the obstacles in the granting of licences for the production and export of the highly rated ganja from the island.
The Forbes report, entitled Aphria, Aurora And Other Big Ag Cannabis Companies Pull Out Of Jamaica, claimed that Canadian- licensed producers of cannabis were leaving the island “in droves”, due in part to stalled governmental decisions on export licenses.
But the CLA last week defended its stewardship of the Jamaican ganja industry, saying that since November 2018 licence holders have had the opportunity to export ganja inflorescence/buds and extracts from Jamaica to jurisdictions across the world, notwithstanding the absence of import/export regulations.
Alexandra Chong, principal of Jacana, a boutique Jamaican ganja outfit, argued that the Forbes magazine story “mischaracterises the real reasons some Canadian companies retreated from their international ambitions”.
[VOA] Omar Radi wasn't surprised to find he was the target of apparent surveillance by Moroccan authorities. The freelance investigative journalist has been threatened and arrested for his coverage of the government, and was most recently summoned by police on June 24.
Two years ago President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the UNHRC, the White House said that the decision did not mean that the country would retreat from its stance on human rights — a cause the administration accused the council of betraying.
Now, African countries are pushing for the UN’s top rights body to launch a high-level investigation into “systemic racism” and police violence in the United States and beyond, The text was the subject of heated discussions in Geneva ahead of a so-called “urgent debate” on the topic at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday.
The draft resolution, introduced by the African group, condemns “racially discriminatory and violent practices perpetrated by law enforcement agencies against Africans and people of African descent and structural racism endemic to the criminal justice system, in the United States of America and other parts of the world.”
The commission, the text said, should probe “systemic racism, alleged violations of international human rights law and abuses against Africans and of people of African descent in the United States” and elsewhere by law enforcement agencies.
UNHRC, founded in 2006, is designed to review and investigate human rights concerns in U.N. countries, whether they are members of the council or not.
Luanda — Luanda's Cassenda neighbourhood residents have breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday, after the authorities decided to lift the sanitary lockdown they were in for lingering 16 days.
Ahead of the lifting of the sanitary lockdown, the authorities tested 160 specimens linked to people suspected of having had direct contact with those infected.
As a result, Futungo de Belas neighbourhood remains under a lockdown, pending the results of 300 residents tests.
In addition to lifting the lockdown, the authorities issued tested residents with covid-19 negative result certificates.
Under sanitary lockdown is also Hoji-Ya-Henda neighbourhood, in Luanda's high density suburb of Cazenga, where 3.335 specimens were collected and a few infections detected, linked to the so-called case 31, a Guinea Conakry national with more than 75 contacts.
Tanzania's main opposition party on Tuesday said its chairman had been hospitalised after being beaten up in a \"politically-motivated\" attack as police said they would investigate the assault.
Freeman Mbowe was ambushed by unknown assailants as he returned home late on Monday in the capital Dodoma, and rushed to hospital with injuries, his Chadema party said in a statement.
A high-profile critic of President John Magufuli, Mbowe has repeatedly accused the government of covering up the extent of Tanzania's coronavirus outbreak and failing to take the pandemic seriously.
Tanzania is one of few countries in Africa that has not taken extensive measures against the virus, and Magufuli is among a handful of world leaders still playing down the seriousness of the pandemic.
The US and Britain expressed concern last November over local government elections in Tanzania after Magufuli's party won 99 percent of seats.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday defended State security agents’ recent brutal clampdown on protesters, saying they were simply enforcing COVID-19 lockdown regulations. Mnangagwa also dismissed allegations of presiding over gross human rights violations. BY MOSES MATENGA Addressing members of the Political Actors’ Dialogue (Polad) in Harare yesterday, Mnangagwa also insisted that “contrary to social media claims”, there was no crisis in the country. “My compatriots, it is in line with enforcing these measures that some sections of society have cried foul,” Mnangagwa said. He was referring to the July 31 anti-corruption protests which were foiled by security forces, attracting the wrath of the international community. “In the wake of the arrest of some elements whose actions sought to not only incite the public to gather against the set rules, but also bordering on subversive allegations of a crisis has been made mainly in social media circles.” Mnangagwa has come under global spotlight after several countries, churches and rights groups condemned his clampdown on dissenting voices, arbitrary arrests of opposition leaders and civic society activists as well as abduction and torture of civilians. The outcry over rights violations in Zimbabwe last month prompted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy envoys on a fact-finding mission to Harare. Mnangagwa has, however, repeatedly denied that there is a crisis in the country and even accused his critics of working in cahoots with the opposition in a plot to overthrow his government. The Zanu PF leader yesterday said investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and opposition leaders Jacob Ngarivhume and Job Sikhala were arrested for violating COVID-19 regulations as well as inciting despondency in the country. “I wish to unequivocally state that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe as elections were held in July 2018 and a winner was declared in terms of the country’s Constitution. All contestants were invited to join this dialogue in the national interest. The door is still open for those outside,” Mnangagwa said in a jibe directed at his main challenger MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, who has steadfastly refused to recognise his victory. Chamisa has also declined to be part of Polad, insisting on “genuine dialogue” superintended by credible observers and at a neutral venue. On the contentious land compensation issue that has triggered anxiety in the ruling Zanu PF party, Mnangagwa said: “… the land reform programme is irreversible. To this end, there is no vacillation. The current processes with regards to land issues entail the implementation of provisions of our national Constitution.”
Elders and political leaders from the Rift Valley are mounting pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to sit down and talk over the thorny issues in Jubilee Party, saying this will ease the rising tension.
Members of the Kalenjin Council of Elders said the escalating cold war between the President and his deputy, which has seen allies of the DP removed from their plum leadership positions in the Senate, is not good for the country at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is ravaging the world.
\"This country is at war with Covid-19, locusts and floods hence political games should be put aside but it is very unfortunate that it is taking place when people are suffering,\" Myoot Council of Elders Chairman Emeritus John Seii, who is also a member of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) task force, said.
They had earlier hinted that Mt Kenya residents should not be forced to vote for Mr Ruto in 2022 in order to succeed President Kenyatta even as some allies of the DP insist that the promise ought to be respected.
Speaking separately at an Eldoret hotel Wednesday, a section of North Rift MCAs called on the President and his deputy to put aside their differences and work together during this pandemic and put in place a Covid-19 recovery plan.
The St Thomas Police are reporting that Raymond Gowie, who was listed as wanted by the St Andrew South Police, has been captured.\tGowie, who is wanted for murder and shooting, was picked up during a police operation in the parish on Sunday.\tIt is...
Up in arms over the Egyptian President's state visit to France, around 20 protesters gathered outside the Paris National Assembly late on Monday, shouting \"down with dictatorship\".
The demonstration outside the parliament painted a very different picture to earlier in the day when France welcomed President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with a cavalry parade through Paris.
Before the three-day visit, rights groups accused France of indulging President al-Sisi's \"brutal repression of any form of dissent\".
\"We've come across a President of the Republic who welcomes the butcher of Cairo, the butcher of Egypt, in great pomp, on a state visit, with the Republican Guard,\" said François de Roche, chief of the NGO Justice and Rights Without Borders.
\"We have fallen on our heads. This is unacceptable. France, the country of Human Rights, cannot accept this.\"
But French President Emmanuel Macron refrained from direct criticism of former army general Sisi, who has cracked down on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, as well as on leftists and liberals.
Macron told a joint press conference with Sisi that he would not condition the sale of weapons to Egypt and trade ties on human rights as he did not want to weaken Cairo’s ability to counter-terrorism in the region.
\"I think it is more effective to have a policy of dialogue than a policy of boycott which would reduce the effectiveness of one of our partners in the fight against terrorism and for regional stability,\" he said.
To force the issue of human rights would be both \"ineffective on the subject of human rights and counter-productive in the fight against terrorism, that's why I won't do it,\" he added
Dozens in Kenya’s capital Nairobi held peaceful demonstrations on Monday against police brutality.
According to Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority, at least 15 people have been killed by the police since authorities imposed a coronavirus curfew in late March.
Rebecca, a protester underlined the necessity of the march: “It’s important to stand in solidarity with victims of police brutality both locally and globally and it’s atrocious.
“We are sick and tired of the police brutality, we want justice for everyone, regardless whether in Kenya or all over the world, LGBT, any body, black lives matter.
Kenya’s police force is often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings, especially in poor neighbourhoods.
