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http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Waritobo Soweibo A MAJOR  ammunition with political foes of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan which shot down his re-election bid in 2015 was the accusation that he favoured the Niger Delta region over other parts of the country. Specifically, his critics alleged that the choicest appointments he made went to Ijaw people, with Bayelsa, his home state, particularly favoured. This allegation was practically made into a song, one that played loudly and was enjoyed to the hilt by other sections of the country. However, those of us who are Ijaws knew this was nothing but fallacy. It was effectively thrown up as such before the election, which Jonathan eventually lost to General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC. The widespread assumption that Jonathan did so much for the Niger Delta, especially the ordinary Bayelsan, was ripped up by the former President himself. Perhaps unintended. Unknown to him at the time, he was making a rod for his o...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda expressed alarm at the inhumane detention of thousands of vulnerable migrants in Libya and said she was examining whether an investigation could be opened into crimes against them. Libya is the main gateway for migrants attempting to reach Europe by sea. The UN migration agency said more than 1,000 migrants have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean this year, while an unknown number perish in the desert. According to the International Organisation for Migration, 20,000 migrants are held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centers in Libya and growing numbers of migrants are traded in what they call slave markets before being held for ransom, forced labor or sexual exploitation. Bensouda told the UN Security Council that her office was collecting and analyzing information “related to serious and widespread crimes allegedly committed against migrants attempting to transit through...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Australia’s first black African member of federal parliament was sworn in on Tuesday in Canberra. Lucy Gichuhi filled the South Australian seat in the Senate which was left vacant for over six months after the resignation of Bob Day from the Family First party. Gichuhi, 54, who has spoken openly about her faith, was warmly welcomed by senators from all parties, with hugs and handshakes, after she took the oath. “I am honoured and humbled to be sworn in today as the first-ever person of black African descent in the Australian Parliament. “I thank God, my husband and daughters, my father and all other friends, family and supporters for your encouragement, and sharing the vision we hold to unite Australia as one,’’ Gichuhi said in a brief message on her Facebook page. The Kenyan-born lawyer arrived in Australia with her husband and children in 1999 and became an Australian citizen in 2001. Gichuhi was the second-ranked candidate on the Family First ticket, but ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Damascus – Islamic State has issued a video showing the beheading of what it described as a Russian intelligence officer captured in Syria, the U.S.-based SITE monitoring website reported on Tuesday. The Russian Defence Ministry and the FSB security service were not immediately available for comment. The 12-minute Russian-language video, released on the day Russia celebrates the anniversary of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany with military parades, showed the man dressed in a black jump suit kneeling in a desert scene and urging other Russian agents to surrender. “This idiot believed the promises of his state not to abandon him if he was captured,” he said before a bearded man beheaded him with a knife. The authenticity of the recording and the identity of the man could not immediately be verified, nor was it clear when the killing occurred. Russian forces are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war with rebels and militants seeking to oust him....

http://ift.tt/2pShpyX Children make up 62 percent of the 1.8 million people in camps across neighbouring countries. PHOTO: UNHCR War has now forced more than one million children to flee South Sudan and uprooted 1.4 million others within the country, the United Nations said on Monday. Children make up 62 percent of the 1.8 million people who have fled South Sudan for refugee camps in neighbouring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda since civil war began in 2013, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, and refugee agency, UNHCR, said in a joint press release. Another 1.4 million children are living in camps inside South Sudan. “The future of a generation is truly on the brink,” said UNICEF’s Leila Pakkala. “The horrifying fact that nearly one in five children in South Sudan has been forced to flee their home illustrates how devastating this conflict has been for the country’s most vulnerable,” she said. South Sudan won its independence in 2011 but two years later a new conflict began whe...

http://ift.tt/2pwMMNI Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Monday he was plunging back into domestic politics in order to fight against Brexit. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel Leal-Olivas Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Monday he was plunging back into domestic politics in order to fight against Brexit. Blair, who led the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007, will not be standing in the June 8 general election. But he said he wanted to build a political movement to shape the policy debate as Britain starts its negotiations to leave the European Union. Blair, 63, who was prime minister for a decade from 1997 and whose legacy has been defined by the Iraq war, said he knew he would face intense criticism for doing so. But the ardent Europhile, who has largely been working on Middle East and African issues since leaving office, still wanted to get his “hands dirty” and re-enter the fray, saying voters should have the chance to change their mind once the final EU exit dea...