Igihe

Category: People

  • Libya Celebrates Fall of Gaddaffi

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    Libyians on Tuesday celebrated the first anniversary of its “liberation” from the regime of Moamer Kadhafi, even as fighting flared in a former bastion of the slain dictator.

    On October 23, 2011, just three days after Kadhafi was captured and killed in his hometown Sirte, the transitional authorities declared the country’s liberation, formally ceasing hostilities.

    The day was observed as a public holiday across Libya.

    Cars cloaked with the national flag cruised the capital from the early morning, their speakers pumping out patriotic songs at full volume. People gathered at Martyrs Square after sundown with youths setting off fire crackers.

    In Benghazi, hundreds of people massed outside Tibesti Hotel to mark the one-year anniversary but also demand that the eastern city, cradle of the uprising that toppled the regime, become the “economic capital.”

    Fierce clashes in Bani Walid, one of the final bastions of the former regime and accused of harbouring die-hard Kadhafi loyalists, have cast a pall over celebrations.

    De facto Libyan leader Mohammed Megaryef expressed confidence on Tuesday that the military operation in Bani Walid would finish “very soon”. He expressed regret over the casualties of the fighting.

    In a speech broadcast by state television, Megaryef emphasised that the assault specifically targeted the “criminals who held the town and its residents hostage,” rather than Bani Walid as a whole.

    He called for national reconciliation and the reactivation of the judiciary.

    Earlier, columns of smoke rose over the hilltop town according to an AFP photographer on the northwestern edge of the town.

    The sound of shooting and explosions rang out in the valleys below.

    Dozens of foreign workers continued to flee on foot, he added.

    Pro-government forces entered Bani Walid and released 22 detainees, the official LANA news agency said.

    Fighting in Bani Walid has fanned old tribal feuds and underscored the difficulties of achieving national reconciliation. Former rebel fighters are locked in battle with ex-Kadhafi loyalists.

    “Since the formal declaration of the end of hostilities, Libya has become a country beset by intercommunal strife,” said Claudia Gazzini, senior Libya analyst for the International Crisis Group.

    “The central authorities have acted chiefly as bystanders, in effect sub-contracting security to largely autonomous armed groups only nominally under the authority of the state,” she said.

    Bani Walid natives, angered by the government-sanctioned offensive against the heartland of the powerful Warfalla tribe, stormed the national assembly on Saturday in protest.

  • President Kagame is 55 Years

    Mr. Paul Kagame also the President of the Republic of Rwanda was born on October 23. It is his birthday today.

    However, the Country’s Leader has been on a busy schedule out of the country.

  • Tsvangirai, Locardia Out of Court Deal Fails

    Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his wife Ms Locardia Karimatsenga have failed to thrash out an out-of-court settlement in their maintenance dispute.

    They are due back in court next week after their lawyers yesterday asked for more time to negotiate.

    Although both sets of lawyers refused to divulge the figures involved, sources said they had initially agreed on a US$200 000 once-off payment for Ms Karimatsenga.

    The sources said the parties reached a stalemate when Ms Karimatsenga raised her demands to US$500 000.

    She reportedly also demanded three oxen.
    Her lawyer, Mr Everson Samukange, confirmed the deadlock, but dismissed the figures as false.

    “I heard there are figures being talked about to be the money claimed by my client. Those figures are false and my client is not after money.”

    Mr Samukange said the parties were set to argue the matter before a magistrate next week.

    The parties had agreed to indefinitely postpone the matter October 18 afternoon, hoping the negotiations would yield positive results. But a few hours after the deferment, they failed to hammer out a settlement.

    “We have deliberated on several issues, but the discussion failed to yield positive results,” said Mr Samukange.

    “This means we are going back to court to argue the matter. Next week we will be back in court. Our client does not want money. She is simply asserting her rights as a wife.”

  • Whitney Houston Daughter to Inherit US$20million

    The family of the late Whitney Houston is battling over a $20 million inheritance to the singers daughter.

    Houston’s 19-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, was slated to receive the money in a trust set up before the singer’s death just before the Grammy Awards broadcast in February.

    But now Whitney’s mother, the singer Cissy Houston, and Marion Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law and business manager, have filed a petition as executors of the Houston estate against Brown in Georgia state court.

    Cissy Houston wants to restrict the inheritance payments to Brown, calling Brown ” a highly visible target for those who would exert undue influence over her inheritance and/or seek to benefit from respondent’s resources and celebrity.”

    Court documents say that the schedule of distributions of Brown’s inheritance aren’t in keeping with Whitney’s “intent to provide long-term financial security and protection for her child.”

    Media reports say Cissy Houston is worried that the money will make Brown a target for financial predators or tempt her into a dangerous lifestyle.

    While the Houston family has its own particular problems (and there have been many), wealthy families frequently confront the same question: how to leave millions to your kid without ruining her life?

  • Archbishop Sentamu Criticises African Nations

    UK’s Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu has criticised African nations for blaming their former colonial masters for their problems.

    Sentamu said, “Europe may have underdeveloped Africa, but I believe we have had the opportunity since then to shape our future and destiny and are in danger of squandering these opportunities”.

    Sentamu noted that African countries are bedeviled with corruption and lack of democracy, with several leaders amending constitutions to stay in power.

    Sentamu, the only black bishop in the Church of England, is a renowned speaker against racism.

    He has told young black people in the UK to stop blaming racism for their problems.

    Sentamu told Black people in UK that success does not lie in guns, gangs, knives or worshiping celebrities, observing that prisons, mental health units and young offender institutions are holding up too many black people.

  • Kenyan Woman Dies After Wedding in Hospital

    A Kenyan woman whose wedding took place in a ward at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi this week, has died.

    Mrs Agnes Wathanu Muchoki, 54, died on Tuesday night after her wedding to her husband, Mr Peter Muchoki, two days earlier.

    During the interview with a Kenyan Press, a tired Mrs Muchoki, who had cancer, had recalled how doctors, relatives, friends and even journalists witnessed the two love-birds tie the knot before hospital chaplain Fr John Kariba.

    On her wedding, Mrs Muchoki said: “It was wonderful… It was nice… In fact I have no words to describe what happened. I have been pestering my husband for a long time to tie the knot.”

    “Oh, the flowers and the cake..I have also been given a marriage certificate as well as the wedding sacrament by my Catholic church,” she added.

    She had said she was looking forward to being discharged from hospital so she could be near her family on her road to recovery.

    In the story, the mother of seven, had appealed to well-wishers to assist her family.

    She said her first born son, who completed his medical laboratory degree course in 2009, remains unemployed.

  • 27 Million People in Slavery

    Today there are more than 27 million people in slavery than anytime in human history.

    The estimated number of people in slavery – 27 million – is more than double the total number believed to have been taken from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade.

    However, campaigners think that slavery may be abolished in the next 30 years.

    The number of slaves transported from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean, from the 16th Century until the trade was banned in 1808 – and the figure is about 12.5 million people.

    The figure of 27 million slaves today comes from researcher Kevin Bales, of Free the Slaves – who blames the huge figure on rapid population growth, poverty and government corruption.

    Many people still think of slavery as a thing of the past, but it exists in many forms, on every continent – ranging from sex and labour trafficking, to debt bondage where people are forced to work off small loans.

    “I often think about a quarry slave from North India,” says investigative journalist Ben Skinner, who has travelled all over the world documenting cases of slavery.

    “I could go in at night and interview him, so I asked him why he didn’t run away. It was because he feared the extraordinary violence of the quarry contractor who held him to a miniscule debt.

    “In his world, the contractor was god. He was not only the taker of life but also the giver of sustenance. When we look at why slavery has persisted we have to look at breaking those cycles of dependence.”

    Skinner says that many of the slaves he met in India had never known a free life. They came from extremely isolated communities, and were not aware of their basic universal rights.

    But while developing countries have the highest number of slave labourers, developed countries with strong human rights laws “fail to resource the law enforcement to deal with the problem in comparison to virtually any other law”, says Bales.

    Barack Obama recently painted a portrait of contemporary slavery.

    “It’s the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker,” he said. “The man, lured here with the promise of a job, his documents then taken, and forced to work endless hours in a kitchen. The teenage girl, beaten, forced to walk the streets.”

    BBC

  • Mrs. Zenawi Refuses to Leave Presidential Palace

    The widow of former prime minister Meles Zenawi has refused to leave Ethiopia’s national palace for the country’s new leader and his family.

    According to government sources, Mrs Azeb Mesfin has ignored instructions to move to a new residence that would also be accorded full security detail.

    The government has given Mrs Azeb and her children the option of three residential villas in Addis Ababa but she is said to have refused to even visit any out of her own security concerns.

    Government officials recently wrote a letter requesting her to leave the palace for the new prime minister, Mr Hailemariam Desalegn.

    The new leader and his family are currently living in a small residential villa in the western suburb of the capital.

    Mr Hailemariam was sworn in last month after having served as interim premier since Mr Meles’ death on August 20. An internal struggle over whether to confirm him into office was said to have had the widow as one of the main players.

    Due to the delay in transferring the palace, Mr Hailemariam is forced to stay in office late in the night and head back very early in the morning to avoid being inconvenienced by the busy Addis Ababa street that leads from his current home to his office.

    He is reportedly also avoiding inconveniencing city residents and uses less security detail than his predecessor.

    The government has deployed tight security around his current home but wants him to move to the more guarded palace.

    Mrs Azeb is one of the top officials and a former rebel fighter under the Tigrian Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), one of the four coalition partners of the powerful ruling party, during the 17-year armed struggle against Mengistu Hailemariam’s Marxist regime.

    A mother of three, she secured a parliamentary seat in 2005 and was re-elected in 2010.

    She also heads the multi-billion dollar ruling party-owned business conglomerate, EFFORT.

  • Mr Ramjit Raghav: Oldest Father in the World

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    A 96-year-old farmer in India says that he has set the record for the world’s oldest new dad – for the second time.

    Ramjit Raghav and his 52-year-old wife Shakuntala Devi, who live in Haryana, 31 miles northwest of Delhi, welcomed baby Ranjeet earlier this month. The healthy baby boy was born on Oct. 5, according to The Times of India.

    Raghav has now beaten his own record for being the world’s oldest new dad, which he set two years ago when he and Shakuntala welcomed their first son together, Vikramajeet.

    Raghav credits his healthy sex drive at his advanced age for the two late-in-life children, and says it was all natural.

    “I didn’t take any performance enhancers … I just prayed to go to complete my family, either a boy or a girl,” the nonagenarian said in an interview posted online.

    Raghav’s age is recorded in the Haryana government’s social welfare department as 96 years old.

    Raghav told The Times of India that he remained a bachelor and was celibate throughout most of his life until he met Shakuntala 10 years ago.

    “After staying together, we decided to extend our family and aspired for two sons. With God’s grace, our wish has been fulfilled,” Raghav said.

    Raghav told The Times that he credits his vivacity to his diet and lifestyle. He says he has been a teetotaler and strict vegetarian his entire life.

    The world’s previous oldest dad was thought to be Indian farmer Nanu Ram Jog, who reportedly had his 21 st child at the age of 90.

    ABC

  • Community Should Model Children

    One evening, I walked from ORINFOR offices to the bus stop named after Kimicanga. As I was approaching, I saw a fourteen-year old Didier wiping silently behind other people who wore selfish faces.

    On my arrival, I asked the sad boy and he answered me shedding more tears that he had waited for the bus for almost two hours.

    The school boy went on saying that some buses had approached with empty seats but whenever he tried to board, he was pushed back. Having told me about the bad story, I thought the best solution is to speak for him and that’s what I did until he left.

    It’s normally known that the one who expects to be paid back is the one who lent. In this context, some parents do the reverse where they need discipline from their children when they didn’t set examples for the young ones.

    Failure to be exemplary to children makes them indiscipline which in turn makes parents complain time after time and even those who take pie as pie would tell you negative stories about the youths if you asked them.

    In this article, Didier’s serves as a general case. I would, therefore, like to remind parents and adults in general of the bad practices that should be abstained from, so as to have children and youths who are well-behaved.

    I would also like to start with home life. A child is like a visitor, the world in which he finds you is like a home and the parent is like a host from whom the visitor expects hospitality.

    Now you can imagine if a visitor is neglected; you fail to welcome him, you don’t show him where to sit, and you show no or little love to him. It’s clear that after some time he can change from good to bad behaviors on the basis of your weaknesses.

    Nowadays, most of the parents (not all) do not do enough to bring up children in the right way. In fact, some of those parents were also never given care in their early days and so they can’t give what they don’t have. Some others lack time in line with hard life they live, and a number of others are just negligent by nature.

    Some questions arise. How can you expect your children to greet you if you don’t greet them when you arrive at home? If at times you use dirty words in presence of your children, don’t you think they are recording your words on their minds?

    If you always go home drunk, is that a good example your children should follow? If frequently you violate the rights of your spouse, don’t you think your children will do the same when they grow up?

    In Rwanda’s culture, a child is expected to respect all elder people as much as he does to his parents. But this is possible by the condition that you treat the other child in the way you treat your own children. This is the reality of life.

    One of exemplary parents gave us an important advice in this statement “Treat every child as your own” but this is always ignored by many parents in different ways.

    The best example to serve this point is the times of evenings where you find many people at bus stops waiting for the buses to take them home. You will see adult people pushing school children carelessly when actually it’s getting dark. Here you can ask yourself the concept the child picks at that moment.

    If you mistreat children in the same way, how do you wait for respect from them? Remember that by the time the child grows to be energetic like you are today, you will have grown weaker. You are pushing him for no reason; he will step on you for that reason.

    I urge the bus drivers and conductors to be considerate to young children before elders as the adult people have many ways of solving their problems.

    contact author at
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    0788402391/0722402391