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US pressing Saudi, UAE to end airspace ban against Qatar
The United States has been trying hard to settle a nearly three-year diplomatic quarelling between Qatar and its neighbours by forcing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to stop their ban on Qatari airlines using their airspace, as seen by the a report.
President Donald Trump has singly begged the Saudi leadership to end the curtailment, which often force Qatari aircraft to use Iranian airspace as their only corridor out of the region, US and Gulf officials told Wall Street Journal.
The strives included calls earlier this spring with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the officials were quoted as saying on Wednesday.
While the diplomatic quarrel has toughened the US’s Middle East strategy, the Trump administration is particularly concerned over so-called “overfly fees” that Qatar pays to Iran to use the airspace, the officials told the Journal.
“There is a greater sense of urgency to resolve the airspace issue,” said one US official. “It’s an ongoing irritation for us that money goes into Iran’s coffers due to Qatar Airways overflights.”
Saudi officials see the airspace issue as their powerful built negotiating point, and are reluctant to relent, a person with knowledge of the issue told the WSJ.
Source__Aljazeera
Janneh Commission Report cannot be imposed or executed – Court of Appeal held
The Gambia Court of Appeal in a like-minded decision held that the Janneh Commission of Inquiry suggestions cannot lawfully render a revocable decision which may be executed or imposed as if it were a judgment or order of a Court.
In conveying a judgment in the case of M.A Kharafi Versus The Attorney General, Justice Omar M.M Njie said: “A Commission of Inquiry does not and legally cannot make a judgment. In other words, a Commission of Inquiry cannot legally render a binding decision which may be executed or enforced as it were a judgment or order.”
Justice Njie added that “the adverse findings and recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry are merely advisory and not conclusive and binding.”
*The judge said the Commission of Inquiry is part and parcel of the Executive and not part of the Judiciary, thus, not an adjudicatory body.*
The reconsideration was filed on the 26th June 2019 by M.A. Kharafi and Sons Company Limited questioning the adverse findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Financial Activities of Public Bodies, Enterprises and Offices as it interpreted their dealings with former President Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh and connected matters.
The Commission endorsed that ex-President Yahya Jammeh is accountable to pay $7,367,426 to the Government of The Gambia and while Kharafi should pay $2,367,426 plus interest of 5% yearlong starting 30th June 2004 to 29th March 2019.
Kharafi doesn’t support these adverse endorsement by the Commission before the Court of Appeal hunt a stay of implementation pending the determination of the appeal.
‘The Court of Appeal held that a commission of inquiry is not a court and therefore, its report submitted to the Government, is neither a judgment nor an order which is capable in itself of being executed.’
Source___Foroyaa
PRESS RELEASE FROM MOFA
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Gambians Abroad of the Republic of The Gambia has learnt with regret the unfortunate incident in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America, that resulted in the death of Mr. Momodou Lamin Sisay, a 39 year old Gambian on Friday 29th May 2020.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked the Gambian Embassy in Washington DC to engage the relevant US authorities including the State Department to seek transparent, credible and objective investigation on the matter. Consequently, the Honourary Consul in Georgia and the Gambian Embassy in Washington DC are on the ground to support the family of the deceased and to also work with US authorities in establishing circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Sisay.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to extend its deepest condolences to the bereaved family and pray that the Almighty Allah grant them the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss and further grant the departed soul a place in Jannatul Firdaus.
Source___ Kerr Fatou
Gambia to ease lockdown limitations
The President of the Gambia Adama Barrow, disclosed of easing limitations brought by the pandemic.
The country which have been in state of emergency for not less than two months ago, will be easing some restriction measures put forward by the government.
*Summary of the president’s address*
1. Religious services commence effective Friday, 5th June, with mandatory use of nose masks and with congregations not exceeding 100.
2. Monday 15th June, final year students of JHS, SHS and university will resume school.
3. Fumigation of all schools across the country before reopening.
3. Private burial of a maximum of 100 persons can proceed.
4. Wedding, and other social gatherings can now be done with not more than 100 people.
5. Other social gatherings such as sporting activities, political rallies, crusade and funeral are still prohibited.
6. Our borders are still closed till further notice.
7. Enhance personal hygiene and social distancing protocols.
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Nigeria COVID-19 Cases Exceeds 11,000
Nigeria having an additional 348 COVID-19 cases, have shift the total number of infections in the country to 11,166.
The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) made this known late on Wednesday.
According to the agency’s report, 163 of the new cases were recorded in Lagos, 76 in the FCT and 23 in Ebonyi.
Other high-flown states were Rivers with 21 cases, Delta, Nasarawa and Niger with eight each, Enugu with six, five each in Bauchi, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Gombe, four in Benue, two in Ogun, and one each in Osun, Plateau, Kogi and Anambra.
A toll of 3,329 have been discharged, while 315 deaths have been confirmed
With the emerging figures, Lagos has remained the focal point with 5,440 cases, closely followed by Kano State which did not record any new cases today, maintaining its initial 970 cases and the FCT with 763 cases.
Source___Channels TV
GAMBIAN SOLDIER TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19
The Gambia yesterday confirmed a new Coronavirus case, making the toll of infection to 26.
As said by the health ministry, the newly recorded case is a 43-year-old Gambian soldier who has been in isolation recently after coming back from his trip to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Senegal with four of his colleagues which tested negative.
The soldier was tested first tested positive for the virus in Sierra Leone.
There is also one potential case, an 11-year-old who currently came home from the US.
The ministry also disclosed that 7 new persons have been taken into isolation for coming from countries with continuing community channelling of the virus..
The Gambia at the moment has 121 persons under quarantine, with 4 ongoing cases and 21 recoveries.
Source___Standard Newspaper
US Ambassador wariness against violence
The US ambassador to The Gambia, has spoken on the death of the African American George Floyd at the hands of police, the universal vilification it caused and the occurring chaos on American streets.
Writing on the embassy’s Facebook page yesterday, Ambassador R Carl Paschall stated: “The response of Americans and Gambians to the tragic death of George Floyd is profound pain and anger, as well as a pressing legitimate need to express frustration and seek truth and justice.
“Healthy democracies require freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. Those who peacefully gather in our two countries and democracies around the world to demand justice, an end to racism and discrimination, and meaningful reform are putting into action our shared values of democracy and respect for the human rights and human dignity of all.
“In the words of an American hero, Rev Martin Luther King, Jr, ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’. But ‘we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence’.
“We must hear the demands for true equality and justice, and we must all as individuals, and as persons united in our determination, act in our daily lives to put into place a world that realises true equality and justice. That is my solemn conviction, and that of my entire team.”
For the moment, a group of Gambians are on the verge of organising a protest march to the embassy on Monday in denunciation of the killing of Mr Floyd and other African-Americans including Gambian-born Momodou Lamin Sisay who was said to have been killed by the police on Saturday. The police professor Sisay died in a shootout.
Last evening, The Gambia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made known that it has requested the Gambian Embassy in Washington to engage the relevant US authorities including the State Department to seek transparent, credible and objective investigation on the death of Gambian Mr Sisay.
Source___Standard Newspaper
Critics of Trump protest policies cross US political Range
President Donald Trump’s carefree posture against protests across the United States and warnings to call out the military to put an end to the unrest in American cities are drawing criticism from a wide swath of US leaders and have instigated a backlash among Democrats in Congress and even some Republicans.
In nationally televised comments at the White House on Monday, Trump called the protests “acts of domestic terror” committed by “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others”.
‘As the president was speaking on Monday, federal police in riot gear and on horseback using chemical gas and flashbangs then cleared Lafayette Park, a city square of grass and trees that has been the epicentre of the protests in Washington, DC.’
*Trump’s words and police actions in Lafayette Park have been widely condemned and opened a schism among US leaders over how best to handle the protests, looting and violence that have swept the nation.*
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, tweeted that Trump’s “Fascist speech … verged on a declaration of war against American citizens.”
The Reverend Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, DC, said she was outraged that “they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop”.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told reporters at a news conference after the call with Trump, the president’s side taking words is faulting to provide the leadership the nation needs right now.
“I heard what the president said today about dominating and fighting. I know I should be surprised when I hear incendiary words like this from him, but I’m not. At so many times during these past several weeks, when the country needed compassion and leadership the most, it was simply nowhere to be found,” Baker said.
Trump offered “bitterness, combativeness and self-interest”, Baker concluded.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey told reporters in Philadelphia on Monday that the president should speed down the language he had been using in his tweets.
Source___Aljazeera
UK’s Prime Minister offers visa tranquillity to 3 million Hong Kong people
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made known that the United Kingdom will reflect on revisions in its immigration rules, giving more Hong Kong inhabitants a way to residency and citizenship, amidst China’s scheme to impose a new national security law in the city.
“If China imposes its national security law, the British government will change our immigration rules,” Johnson wrote in an opinion piece published in the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.
Johnson’s support in the paper was published as Hong Kong strive to clamp down on lack of agreement and pro-democracy activities, inclusive of the prohibition, for the first time, of the yearly June 4 vigil honouring victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
A disputed bill that will make it unlawful “disrespect” of China’s national anthem is also due for a second reading in the territory’s legislature on Wednesday.
Since Hong Kong go back to Chinese rule in 1997, Johnson said that “the key has been the precious concept of ‘one country, two systems’, enshrined in city’s Basic Law and the Joint Declaration signed by Britain and China”.
He said forcing the national security law “would be in direct conflict with (China’s) obligations under the Joint Declaration, a legally binding treaty registered with the United Nations.”
Johnson notifie that what Beijing was putting forward in Hong Kong “would curtail its freedoms and dramatically erode its autonomy”.
In retaliation, Johnson said that “if necessary”, the British government would take moves to welcome more Hong Kong inhabitants to the UK.
Source___Aljazeera
Public outrage in China after front-line doctor dies
The death of a front-line doctor in central China is provoking a public condemnation against the authorities’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Hu Weifeng died on 2 June, after a four-month fight with Covid-19.
‘He made headlines in March, when his skin turned black “due to liver dysfunction” during his treatment.’
The real cause of his death has not been disclosed to the public but the news has set off an unending anger on Chinese social media sites.
Dr Hu Weifeng, and a colleague, cardiologist Yi Fan, went viral in April after official media publicised their “tough battle against the virus”.
Users of the popular Sina Weibo microblog were stunned at the time to see that the pigmentation had changed in their faces, which media said “could be due to abnormal liver functions”.
The two became known as “the two black-faced Wuhan doctors”, and they won nationwide cheers for their struggle back against the virus, as both had been very sick.
Dr Li became popular as China’s “whistle-blower” doctor, who first make colleagues aware about the danger of the virus back in late December.
His death instigated national anger, as it became clear that the authorities had tried to silence him by giving him a scolding.
It is still not known whether the two knew each other, as the two doctors worked in different departments.
*There are reportedly more than 4,200 hospital employees at the Wuhan Central Hospital.*
The cause of his death has not been made public; however, Global Times says that “his situation was severe and he became emotionally unstable”.
Source___BBC News
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