Woman stabs husband to death for coming home late and drunk

A Kenyan woman has been arrested for allegedly stabbing her husband to death for arriving home late and drunk. 
Ann Mbaithe (pictured left) was accused of stabbing her husband, Daniel Githuka, 30, in the chest and killing him, after he returned home in the early hours of Saturday, July 30 in Tinganga village, Kiambu town. 

The deceased's mother Elizabeth Wanjiku said he worked at a neighbouring school and usually returned at about 10pm. She said the couple had been married for five years and had no problems. The had one child aged four and a half. 

"My son and I live in the same compound. I heard confrontation from my house past midnight," Wanjiku recounted.

The mother said she got out of bed and went to Githuka's house where she found him arguing with his wife. Her son stood his ground saying he was the head of the house who should not have been confronted over the matter. She had not noticed the knife Mbaithe had been holding since she folded her arms.

"It was not a physical confrontation but my son's wife suddenly attacked and stabbed him in the chest with a knife. After my son was stabbed I called for help from neighbours but upon reaching hospital he was pronounced dead due to loss of blood."

Wanjiku said she reported the matter at Kiambu police station. Officers arrived  later and arrested Mbaithe at the home. County DCI boss Amos Tebeny said Mbaithe will be charged with murder once investigations are completed.

Source: The Star

India bridge collapse: Search for survivors after two buses plunge into river- CNN

Nearly two dozen people are missing after one of two major bridges connecting the Indian cities of Mumbai and Goa collapsed over the swollen Savitri River.

The bridge gave way at about 2 a.m. local time on Wednesday, said Rakesh Ranjan, Deputy Commandant of the National Disaster Response Force and Civil Defence (NDRF), sending two buses into flood waters below.

The state passenger buses were carrying 22 people -- 18 passengers, two conductors and two drivers.

High pressure from the flooding of Savitri River caused the collapse, Chief Minister of Maharashtra state Devandra Fadnavis said in a video statement on Facebook. The single-lane bridge was built in British-era colonial times.

A rescue effort is underway with four NDRF teams, navy helicopters, boats and divers at the scene.

#SAR @SpokespersonMoD some more pics of rescue operation...16 Divers and few Geminis already deployedpic.twitter.com/1lwXXdyMIg

— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) August 3, 2016

Fadnavis said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had "assured all help from the central government," and right now a desperate attempt is being made to locate the buses that have gone into the river."

PM @narendramodi offered all help in rescue and relief operations.
NDRF teams are already activated.@NDRFHQ 
/2

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) August 3, 2016

A newer bridge, which runs parallel to the collapsed road, has resumed traffic, Fadnavis said on Twitter, citing a Raigad district official.

India has been hit by severe flooding in the past few days which has taken the lives of 163 and affected as many as 7.78 million, according to the NDRF.

Turkey jails journalists as Erdogan rebukes Western critics

This handout picture taken on July 29, 2016 and released by Turkish Presidential Press Service shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akarl at the Presidential Complex, in Ankara.(AFP)

Turkey was on Saturday holding 17 journalists on charges of “terror group” membership as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Western critics to “mind your own business” over a relentless crackdown following a failed coup.

But in a goodwill gesture two weeks after the July 15 coup bid, Erdogan also announced he was withdrawing thousands of lawsuits against individuals accused of insulting him.

Turkey has detained more than 18,000 people over the attempted putsch which has been blamed on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen — a charge he denies — with the relentless crackdown sparking warnings from Brussels that Ankara’s EU membership bid may be in danger.

Seventeen journalists remanded in custody by an Istanbul court over links to Gulen woke up in jails across the city on Saturday as international concern grows over the targeting of reporters in the wake of the putsch.

Twenty-one journalists had appeared before a judge in hearings lasting until midnight on Friday. Four were then freed but 17 were placed under pre-trial arrest, charged with “membership of a terror group”, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Those held include the veteran journalist Nazli Ilicak as well as the former correspondent for the pro-Gulen Zaman daily Hanim Busra Erdal.

Among those freed was prominent commentator Bulent Mumay who was given a rapturous welcome by supporters.

“I could never have imagined being accused of such a thing. It was a madness. It’s not right to arrest journalists — this country should not make the same mistakes again,” he said, quoted by the Dogan news agency.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended the detention of reporters, saying it was necessary to distinguish between coup plotters and those “who are engaged in real journalism”.

The president also announced that as a gesture of goodwill after the coup he was dropping hundreds of lawsuits against individuals accused of insulting him.

“I am going to withdraw all the cases regarding the disrespectful insults made against me,” said Erdogan.

Earlier this year, officials had said more than 2,000 people were being prosecuted on charges of insulting the president.

‘Mind your own business!’

Thousands of those detained after the coup have now been released, with an Istanbul court releasing 758 soldiers late on Friday, adding to another 3,500 former suspects already set free.

“And if there is even the slightest doubt that the (treatment) is improper, then the consequences will be inevitable,” he told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.But with concern growing about the sheer numbers rounded-up, EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said he needed to see “black-and-white facts about how these people are treated”.

In a speech at his presidential palace late Friday remembering those killed during the failed coup, Erdogan angrily denounced the criticism and accused the West of deserting Turkey in its hour of need.

“Some people give us advice. They say they are worried. Mind your own business! Look at your own deeds,” Erdogan said.

“Not a single person has come to give condolences either from the European Union… or from the West,” said Erdogan.

“Those countries or leaders who are not worried about Turkey’s democracy, the lives of our people, its future while being so worried about the fate of the putschists cannot be our friends,” he growled.

One of the very few EU officials of any rank to visit Turkey in the wake of the coup was Alan Duncan, a junior minister within Britain’s foreign office.

But Erdogan was on Saturday to meet Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman al-Thani of Qatar, one of Turkey’s closest allies.

‘Taking the plotters’ side’

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey has succeeded in eradicating all elements linked to Gulen from the military after sacking nearly half of its generals following the failed coup.

“We are going to make our armed forces stronger and we are going to work towards making this country more secure,” he said.

Turkey implemented a shake-up of the military on Thursday after nearly half of its 358 generals were sacked for complicity in the coup.

Erdogan had earlier also lashed out at a top US general who had expressed concerns about military relations after the putsch.

Quoted by US media, US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel said Thursday that the coup bid and subsequent round-up of dozens of generals could affect American cooperation with Turkey.

“You are taking the side of coup plotters instead of thanking this state for defeating the coup attempt,” Erdogan said at a military centre in Golbasi outside Ankara, where air strikes left dozens dead during the coup.

Votel swiftly denied any link to the coup however.

UN security council agrees to send police to Burundi

The UN Security Council has authorised the deployment of a UN police force to Burundi to try to quell violence and human rights abuses in the country.

The council backed a French-drafted resolution to send up to 228 police for an initial period of a year.

Burundi earlier said it would accept no more than 50 police officers.

More than 400 people have been killed in unrest since President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run for a third term in office last April.

More than 200,000 people have fled their homes.

Negotiations continue

“Given an increase in violence and tension the Security Council must have eyes and ears on the ground to predict and ensure that the worst does not occur in Burundi,” said French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre.

The government of Burundi earlier warned it would agree to no more than 50 UN police officers.“This is a strong act of preventative diplomacy,” he added.

Diplomats are now negotiating how to implement the UN Security Council’s resolution.

Although both Burundi’s opposition and government forces are ethnically mixed, some fear that the violence could descend into a repeat of the genocidal killings which the country has previously experienced.

President Nkurunziza is the former leader of a Hutu rebel group which battled a Tutsi-dominated army for many years until he came to power in 2005 as part of a peace deal.

Budget Padding: The road to constitutional dictatorship

One cliché that has lately drawn interest among Nigerian newsmakers and observers is the controversial phenomenon of “Budget Padding.” Given the way Nigerians are wont to glamourise crimes, or take for granted issues thrown at them by the political class, it is not surprising that very few Nigerians have been able to interrogate the phrase to give a definitive meaning to it.

Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the just sacked Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, recently refocused attention on the issue.

Jibrin had drawn the first blood a week ago after he was removed as chairman of the appropriation committee when he accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers of padding the 2016 budget. According to him, his opposition to the alleged padding and other supposed malfeasances of the Speaker and his allies was the reason for his forced resignation as chairman of the appropriation committee.

His assertion, however, quickly drew the attention of critics who queried why he had to wait till he was removed from office before spilling the beans.

Taking a cue from the assertions of Rep. Jibrin, President Obasanjo upon a visit with President Muhammadu Buhari again took a direct hit at the National Assembly when he said that the Jibrin incident had again confirmed his past assertions that there were rogues and armed robbers in the National Assembly.

Obasanjo’s assertions undoubtedly drew from his experience of dealing with the National Assembly during his period in the Presidential Villa. In one case, he had an incumbent President of the Senate investigated and charged to court after he and some other members of the committees on education of the two chambers were indicted for soliciting for bribes to pass the budget of the Federal Ministry of Education.

However, what has shaken many friends and foes of the former president is the claim that the most brazen act of corruption in recent Nigeria history involving the legislature did not emanate from the National Assembly, but from the executive branch of government.

It was an irony of sorts for someone like Senator Adolphus Wabara who was himself allegedly offered double the amount to support the amendment. Wabara claimed he was offered double the normal N50 million even after he was indicted by the executive branch of government in the N54 million bribe for budget scam in the Federal Ministry of Education.The Third Term fiasco during which members of the House of Representatives supportive of the constitution amendment for a third term for the president and governors were offered N50 million apiece till date continues to be cited as the most repugnant act of corruption ever in the Fourth Republic of Nigeria.

A number of other principled legislators also refused the bribe and were to shine like stars in that dark period of licentious legislative lampoonery supposedly crafted by the executive branch. For their principled stances, they were denied return tickets and many others like Temi Harriman, the only House member from the ruling party from the South-South who fought third term, simply walked away from the ruling party.

Senator Joy Emodi for her opposition was made to confront the political treachery that has been symptomatic of politics in Anambra State in her bid for a return ticket on the platform of the PDP.

The Third Term project and the seeming acquiesce of the Obasanjo presidency to the fiasco remains in the view of many, including this correspondent, the major failure of the Obasanjo administration.

Otherwise, President Obasanjo has remained almost head and shoulder above his successors.

Whether President Obasanjo or Jibrin or whoever, no one has been able to give a classic definition of the phrase, budget padding.

The seeming determination of the executive branch to force the term into the consciousness of Nigerians remains deceptive.

Given the provisions of Sections 80, 81 and 82 of the Constitution, the National Assembly cannot be said to have padded a budget that it has a right to work on. Stopping the National Assembly from padding, adjusting or shrinking the budget would inevitably make the legislature a rubber stamp. It would mean taking away its most important duty of controlling the purse and turning the executive branch into a dictatorship.

Dangote Immensely commended by Global Bodies for investment in Africa

Global Organised Labour under the aegis of African Industrial Global Union has commended the President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote for his strategic investments across African countries and creating thousands of jobs for the teaming population.

The body, at a meeting in Lagos, called for special recognition for the African entrepreneur, describing him as a success story from African soil for which African countries must be proud of.

Speaking at a network meeting on unionisation in Dangote group, organised by Industrial Global Union Africa Region in Lagos, Union leaders one after another said Dangote has offered a relief to Africa from the negative narratives the western countries latched on to discredit her and her people.

They stated that much as an African could be so patriotic as to be dotting African soil with billions of dollars investments to create jobs and reduce poverty, he needs to be given special recognition to motivate others to tow similar line.

Relishing on the prospective of an African country hosting the single largest Refinery and Petrochemicals train project, the union leaders said it was planning in their next African meeting to bring the business mogul to address global union leaders.

Regional Secretary, Sub-Saharan Africa, Fabian Nkomo said the body cherished the business acumen of Dangote and would like to work closely with him so that as he creates jobs, the union could also partner to ensure job quality is maintained.

He said he has moved round Africa and discovered no one else has invested so much in Africa as an Africa and therefore Dangote should be encouraged. “He has help governments across African states to create vital jobs and reduce poverty among our people, the unions are very proud of him”, Nkomo stated.

In his remark, the Africa Regional Chairman of Industrial Global Union, Issa Aremu who is also the General Secretary of Textile Workers Union commended Aliko Dangote for leading industrialisation in the Africa continent.

Aremu acknowledged the remarkable efforts of Aliko Dangote at re-industrialisation of the continent, stimulating the continent’s growth and creating more jobs for its huge population.

Dangote Group was commended for the strong network of branches across the Africa continent; Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Congo, Cameroun, Kenya, Ethiopia among others.The labour leader lauded the commitment of Dangote to sustainable industrial development and urged government to provide favourable environment for investments as well as improvement in infrastructural development.

Aremu added that it was time Dangote group entered into mutually rewarding engagement with relevant unions with a view to unionisation even as he called on trade unions to support business through improved productivity.

He alluded to the $12 billion dollar Refinery, Petrochemicals and Fertilizer projects which he said will be a revolution of the Nigerian industrial space when completed.

As partners in progress, Aremu pledges the support and cooperation of Industrial Global to ensure business-friendly unionization of the Dangote workers.

He nevertheless cautioned the unions involved to be proactive and strategic in approaching the exercise saying “we need to show that we are partners to improve on the businesses of Alhaji Aliko because we are talking of unionization because there is an investment in which workers are engaged. If there there are no businesses, we can’t be talking of unionism.

“So first and foremost, we must be seen to be part of forces that are protecting investments. We are not business killers, if anything we are adding values. So we cherish him as one of the few Nigerians making a good story out of Nigeria and Africa and would like to collaborate with him.

Industrial Global Union with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the cement, mining, energy and manufacturing sectors. Industrial is a force in global solidarity taking up the fight for better working conditions and trade union rights around the world.