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Glee cast and other stars pay tribute to Naya Rivera
Tributes have been paid to actress Naya Rivera, whose death has now been confirmed by US police after missing for days.
The 33-year-old, famous for playing Santana Lopez on Glee, had gone missing during a boat trip in California.
After a long search, divers found her body yesterday prompting an outpouring of love and sympathy from her co-stars.
“She was so independent and strong and the idea of her not being here is something I cannot comprehend,” wrote Glee actor Kevin McHale on Twitter.
“She was the single most quick-witted person I’ve ever met, with a steel-trap memory that could recall the most forgettable conversations from a decade ago.
“She was the most talented person I’ve ever known and I’m furious we won’t get to see more.”
“Rest sweet, Naya. What a force you were. Love and peace to your family,” added Jane Lynch, who played coach Sue Sylvester on the show.
Many of her former cast-mates gathered at the bank of Lake Piru, near Los Angeles, to pay their respects.
Source___BBC
Gambia Moral Congress accuses President Barrow’s Party of violating Covid-19 regulations
The Gambia Moral Congress has accused President Barrow’s National People’s Party of violating Covid-19 emergency regulations by holding a political gatherings that oversight every law under the state of public emergency.
“If the president’s own political party has taken the lead in breaking the laws with impunity, it sets the stage for everyone to now disregard those same laws and regulations,” GMC said in a statement seen by The Standard.
The GMC also argued: “It shows law enforcement agencies have been conditioned to revert to the old days, reversing all the gains made under Hon. Mai Ahmad Fatty as the Minister of Interior. These people should have been arrested for flouting the SoPE regulations, charged and prosecuted. Since NPP emerged, disobedience to the law has assumed unprecedented proportions in this country. It is a shame that the Government would declare a new SoPE with restrictive conditions, and the next minute the top leadership of the NPP openly and publicly authorised its supporters to flout our laws and regulations without consequences. This is the type of leadership the NPP offers – total disrespect and disregard for the law.”
The Gambia Moral Congress further questions that the NPP demonstrates they are above the law and should not be trusted.
“This is shameful and we must all unite to STOP this potential cancer now before it invades the body. This sort of reckless conduct by the NPP could potentially launch this country into chaos and instability with perilous consequences. We urge all Gambians and other political parties to continue to observe public health advisory and shun the terrible example of the NPP and its leadership by undermining the Ministry of Health.”
Source___Standard Newspaper
Gambia Election: APRC DISCLOSES COALITION TALKS WITH NPP
The deputy spokesperson of the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction has disclosed that President Barrow’s National People’s Party is pushing to get his party into a coalition before the 2021 presidential election, but there is no possible feedback from the agreement as of now.
“I can confirm to you that we are discussing with the NPP and three other political parties – but we have not reached an agreement with anyone of them just yet. But any agreement we are going into will be in the interest of the Gambian people,” Dodou Jah told The Standard.
Speaking singly on the talks with the NPP, Jah was quick to acknowledge that the former ruling party “will not go into any agreement with NPP unless President Adama Barrow fulfils the constitutional guarantee of giving Yahya Jammeh his dues as an ex-president and return all seized APRC assets.”
“I don’t know about other political parties but for NPP, we will not go into any agreement with them if they fail to give Jammeh his rights as a former head of state. That cannot be comprised. We are not going to have an agreement with somebody who doesn’t respect the law,” he said.
He said for any coalition between the APRC and the NPP, the government will have to implement the joint agreement between AU, UN and Ecowas before Jammeh left for exile.
“It is also our belief that the Barrow administration should reconsider their implementation of the Janneh Commission recommendations. It is illegal and should not be tolerated in a democracy,” he added.
Meanwhile the APRC Member for Foni Berefet, Sankung Jammeh also told The Standard in an exclusive interview that a coalition with NPP is a possibility if President Barrow accedes to the demand for the unconditional return of ex-president Jammeh.
He further added that the coming home of the exiled former president Jammeh was the top item on the agenda when the party’s interim leader, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, and other party officials met President Barrow at the presidency sometime last year.
Source___Standard Newspaper
HOW I BECOME AN INCREDIBLE WOMAN BOSS?
Meet Binta Hydara, a 20 year old young entrepreneur and a Student at the University of the Gambia who owns an incredible fashion shop called the “ Bees Fashion Collection” located in Banjul.
Binta lives in Fajara and comes from a family of six and she is the first child of her parents. The support of her parents made this strong woman boost her fashion career to the next level.
Her inspirational career started far back in 2017 when she travelled with her family to England for the summer. Being a fashion oriented young girl, she decided to take a chance. “I said to myself there are a lot of things I can do here, I could buy so many things here and take it to the Gambia and sell them. But I realise I also need Facebook and Instagram to take my creative start to another level, and that is by posting the merchendise that I have,” she said.
Her first post on social media on all the outfits she ordered to bring along were all taken well before she reached Gambia; this was a drastic motivating push for her. She then decided to continue sending money and receives her merchendise within two weeks or less.
To organise and manage your own fashion shop, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk, women entrepreneurs needs to undertake various challenges. Despite this, Binta take an urge to balance work and school life, for a stable work and an intention to take advantage of a newly discovered market niche, were her main motivation.
“When we look at women who don’t go to school and striving hard to make their way through entrepreneurship, those are exceptional women. And we should do all that we can to learn from those people,” Binta said
She also delivers clothing materials ordered from her fashion shop to people’s door steps and also working on more expansion in the future.
Binta believes there is still more battles to fight looking at the society we live in today, but acknowledging that gender should not be an issue for modern business women.
“Taking a lead by example in business, I am sure by seeing many role models in the Gambia, more prospective women will be inspired to pursue their dream of becoming an entrepreneur.” Said Binta, proving women can shoot for the stars.
Her business is going from strength to strength, with plans to expanding nationwide. A business woman with true passion for change, she is enthusiastic about the future: “I want to motivate as many young women as possible, so I won’t stop.”
Pursuing our dreams can sometimes be a choice we don’t feel like deciding we have or we might feel like others need to decide it for us.
Perhaps it i’s because of our mindset or maybe age can contribute a bits , and society somehow tell us that, there are no alternatives we can use to relate to our situation which spur our everyday imagination.
All this is left with you and that one step to make it right.
Afrinity Feature News
BY AMIE T. CAMARA
Three generations of Bollywood Bachchan family infected with Covid-19
Three generations of a high-profile Bollywood family have tested positive for the novel Corona Virus, officials in the Indian state of Maharashtra say.
Reports on Sunday showed the actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, a former Miss World, and her daughter Aaradhya, eight, were infected with the virus.
Her husband Abhishek and father-in-law Amitabh were taken to hospital on Saturday with the Corona Virus infection.
Both men were said to have mild symptoms.
Abhishek Bachchan tweeted that they would remain in hospital “till the doctors decide otherwise”.
Aishwarya Bachchan, 46, is one of Bollywood’s celebrated faces both in India and abroad, featuring in several Bollywood and Hollywood films.
On Saturday Amitabh Bachchan told his millions of Twitter followers he had tested positive for Covid-19.
“I have tested Covid positive, shifted to hospital, hospital informing authorities, family and staff undergone tests, results awaited,” he wrote.
Amitabh is currently in the isolation unit of the hospital, news agency ANI reported, quoting a public relations officer for the hospital. He urged anyone who had been close to him in the past 10 days to get tested.
The news has led to an outpouring of support for the family on social media. Among those paying their respects were actress Sonam K Ahuja and former India cricket player Irfan Pathan.
India saw a record rise in the number of coronavirus cases by 27,100 on Sunday, with the total climbing to nearly 850,000 – the third highest caseload in the world. There have been complaints about a lack of both testing and frontline medical staff.
Source__BBC
Nigeria Set To Present Voluntary National Review Report On SDGs To UN
The Federal Government of Nigeria is set to present its 2nd Voluntary National Review after 3 years and this year’s review is base on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the United Nations High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Monday, 13th July.
President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by his Senior Special Assistant on SDGs, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, will be presenting the Report at the 2nd Panel session of the Forum, which is holding online for the first time this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nigeria’s 2020 Voluntary National Review (VNR) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses on the key issues of poverty (SDG-1) and an inclusive economy (SDG-8), health and wellbeing (SDG-3), Education (SDG-4), Gender equality (SDG-5), and the enabling environment of peace and security (SDG-16), and partnerships (SDG-17). This focus is based on Nigeria’s current development priorities and the development objectives of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
This VNR is being developed while facing huge challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic testing Nigeria’s public health systems, and of the collapse in oil prices, for an economy still getting 86% of public revenue from oil and gas.
Source___Channels TV
Buhari Calls For Common Position On Asset Recovery,
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has urged African leaders to ensure the immediate actualisation of the Common African Position on Assets Recovery (CAPAR), as the continent celebrates Anti-Corruption Day, July 11, 2020.
In a letter to South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairman of African Union, the Nigerian leader asked for a re-commitment to the anti-corruption war by leaders on the continent to engender an “integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, representing a dynamic force in the international arena.”
The President laments that “the massive corruption being perpetrated across our national governments has created a huge governance deficit that has in turn created negative consequences that have worsened the socioeconomic and political situation in Africa.”
The letter by President Buhari reads in part:
“As Your Excellency is aware, the continental fight against corruption has been premised on an irreducible minimum that can pave the way for Africa’s transformation. In this effort, the emphasis has been on the continent’s collective determination to forge resilient partnerships among our national governments, civil society organizations and other interest groups, such as women, youth and the physically challenged, to ensure improved socio-economic, political and security development and ultimately, the improvement of our continent.
“Your Excellency may recall that these continental concerns led our colleagues at the African Union, to appoint my humble self as the African Union Anti-Corruption Champion.I believe that the efforts and focus of the Nigerian Government at home, partly informed this decision as well as the need for Africa, as a continent, to recommit herself to the fight against corruption and the imperative to free resources for meaningful development.
“As current Chair of our Union, I sincerely commend to you, this suggestion that seeks to call our leaders in Africa to recommit ourselves to this very important task of reclaiming our continent from the vice of systemic corruption.
Source___Channels TV
Sudan reforms strict islamist law after 30 years
After more than 30 years of Islamist rule, Sudan has reforms it’s rules in wide range, including allowing non-Muslims to drink alcohol, and scrapping the apostasy law and public flogging.
“We [will] drop all the laws violating the human rights in Sudan,” Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari said.
Many of the new laws were passed last week but this is the first public explanation of their contents.
Under the new laws, women no longer need permission from a male relative to travel with their children.
Sudan has also banned female genital mutilation (FGM).
The reforms come after long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir was ousted last year following massive street protests.
The current government is an uneasy mixture of those groups which ousted Mr Bashir and his former allies in the military, who ultimately staged a coup against him
Non-Muslims are now allowed to consume alcohol in private, however the ban on Muslim drinking remains, Mr Abdulbari told state TV.
Non-Muslims could still be punished if they are caught drinking with Muslims, the Sudan Tribune reports him as saying.
Source___BBC
Nelson Mandela’s last daughter Zindzi dies at 59
Zindzi Mandela, the last daughter of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, has died at the age of 59.
Zindzi Mandela died in a Johannesburg hospital in the early hours of today morning, public broadcaster SABC said.
She was positioned as the South African ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death.
The cause of her death was not immediately disclosed.
Zindzi Mandela was Nelson Mandela’s sixth child and his second with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, his second wife.
“This is untimely. She still had a role to play in the transformation of our own society and a bigger role to play even in the African National Congress (ANC),” said ANC spokesman Pule Mabe.
Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor said: “Zindzi will not only be remembered as a daughter of our struggle heroes, but as a struggle heroine in her own right.”
Source___BBC
Actress Kelly Preston, Wife to John Travolta’s dies aged 57
Kelly Preston, the actress and wife of John Travolta for 29years has died aged 57.
Travolta posted on Instagram: “My beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer. She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”
The couple had been married for nearly 29 years. Preston’s career included roles in Twins, From Dusk Till Dawn, Jerry Maguire and The Cat in the Hat.
She also collaborated with her husband on Battlefield Earth and Old Dogs.
In his post, Travolta thanked the health workers who had looked after his wife “as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side”.
“I will be taking some time to be there for my children who have lost their mother, so forgive me in advance if you don’t hear from us for a while. But please know that I will feel your outpouring of love in the weeks and months ahead as we heal. All my love, JT”.
Source___BBC
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