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By Alan Beattie

Much horror and perturbation among the Asia-Pacific countries meeting earlier this month in Lima at Donald Trump’s threat to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the proposed regional trade agreement of twelve countries.

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Armenian armed forces have 24 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the last 24 hours, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on November 29.

Minute par minute, l’information politique racontée, décryptée, analysée par la rédaction du « Monde ».

Jeudi 1er décembre, les Gambiens sont appelés aux urnes. Mais cette élection présidentielle semble déjà jouée, tant Yahya Jammeh tient son pays d’une main de fer depuis 22 ans. Cette période électorale est néanmoins une fenêtre pour l'opposition qui peut critiquer le pouvoir et le chef de l'Etat et tenir des réunions. La campagne se termine ce mardi 29 novembre à minuit. Les deux camps préparent leurs derniers meetings.

Wonderful conditions are created for training sessions in rhythmic gymnastics in Baku, Finnish female individual rhythmic gymnast Jouki Tikkanen said in an interview with Trend on November 28.

A moins d'une semaine du deuxième tour de scrutin de la présidentielle en Autriche, une vidéo a été vue trois millions de fois sur Internet. Il s'agit de l’appel d'une survivante de l'Holocauste à ne pas voter pour le candidat de l'extrême droite Norbert Hofer.

November 28, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The trial of a Czech journalist and two Christian pastors charged with espionage, waging war against the state and inciting hatred against religious congregations, has continued in Khartoum on Monday.

police stands outside the courthouse in Khartoum 2007

Last December, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested Czech missionary and filmmaker Petr Jasek four days after he entered Sudan carrying two bags containing a laptop, a mobile phone, a video camera besides other documents.

Jasek reportedly confessed that he received the documents and the video from a colleague by the name of Grad Phelps in South Kordofan in 2012.

In the trial which resumed in the Sudanese capital Monday, the prosecutor told the court that Jasek has entered Sudan to carry intelligence activities.

The Persecutor told the court NISS had expelled several foreigners from Sudan for carrying hostile activities against the state, jeopardizing national security, waging tribalism, documenting for the claimed human rights violations and incite waging war against the state.

“The Czech defendant has met the other two defendants during their participation in an intelligence linked conference in Addis Ababa,” claimed the persecutor, adding that the defendants have documented for alleged human rights violations and they have incited waging war against the state.

He went to say that a conference in Addis Ababa was organized to provide support to rebel groups, saying that the Czech defendant has documented for alleged students torture and use of chemical substances against Darfur students.

The trial of the Czech journalist and the two Christian pastors started last August.

Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999, due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the country remain on the list in its 2016 report.

(ST)

November 28, 2016 (BOR) – Jonglei's government dismissed the ex-secretary general's claimed of nepotism and corruption in the state.

Jonglei state governor, Phillip Aguer speaks during the independence occassion July 9, 2016 (ST)

The ex-secretary general Mawut Achiek, who resigned on 25 November, claimed the state was heavily indebted to 17.9 million pounds, making it difficult to make incentive payments to about 200 of the governor's guards; majority of who belong to the latter's clan.

Achiek said he been forced by some officials, who to include names of people already in public service into the pay roll, or replace some existing staff in higher salary grades, with people from the governor's clan.

But in reaction to statements from the ex-secretary general, the minister of information Akech Deng said government had never had any new appointments since the new Jonglei state was created.

“Since the appointment of Aguer Panyang no single new appointment was made, in all the ministries because we inherited all staff of former Jonglei whom we found operating. If you want, go to finance and check all the staff there name by name, to see if there is any cashier who belongs to the governor”s clan”, he said.

“The governor never authorized any one to appoint cashier”, he added.

About-unpaid incentives for the guards since April, the minister said it was the responsibility of secretary and finance ministry to pay them.

But the secretary general said he was not able to get money to pay.

“It is not the governor to pay his guards, it is the secretary general and finance who do those duties”, Akech added.

Although the information minister declined to disclose the state financial position, whether debts of 17.9 million SSP were untrue, and why it was difficult for the secretary to meet money to pay the guards, he later on highlighted that the state had financial deficit.

“If there is something like debts or deficits, talk to the finance minister,” said Akech.

“There is overstaffing in the state, and the governor has formed a ministerial committee to screen the employees, and order the physically count of the working force to address the issue of deficit and this is to show that the governor has not authorized any new appointment since he was appointment”, he added.

The minister said the government does not belong to a particular clan, and that rules of the land do not allow anyone to threaten people.

“If there is anyone who attempted to do so, then the ex-secretary general should have reported this”, he said.

(ST)

In case of a breakdown at the Armenian nuclear power plant, 25 communities will be in the primary risk zone.

Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria has hosted the Chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s Committee of National Defense, Hannes Hans, Interpress news reported.

Warm seas around Australia's Great Barrier Reef have killed two-thirds of a 700-km (435 miles) stretch of coral in the past nine months, the worst die-off ever recorded on the World Heritage site, scientists who surveyed the reef said on Tuesday.

Suspect killed, several injured in Ohio State University attack.

November 28, 2016 (LEER) – The armed opposition forces allied to South Sudan ex-First Vice-President, Riek Machar soldiers allied to Machar's successor, Taban Deng Gai of allegedly killing civilians in Daplual and Male villages, northwest of Mayiandit county headquarters.

People wait to fill up their water containers at a camp for internally displaced people in Unity state capital Bentiu (Photo: Matthew Abbott/AP)

The area opposition spokesperson, James Yoach Bideng, claimed soldier, commanded by Lt-Gen. Dor Majur, combined with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and killed dozens of civilians.

He said over 20 civilians were killed and thousands fled their homes as pro-government forces and troops allied to the first Vice President entered the villages and surrounded areas over the weekend.

“For the last two days the pro-government troops and those allied to Taban Deng have been mopping the population there. It is very sad to hear civilians got killed and with their homes being burned and chopped down,” Yoach told Sudan Tribune Monday.

Last week, the official added, armed groups launched major offensives against Machar forces in the area, with an intention to dislodge and regain more territories within the oil-rich Unity state.

Also, clashes were earlier this month reported between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to South Sudan's armed opposition leader in Nhialdiu and Jazeera areas of Rubkotna county.

About 20 aid workers were reportedly caught up in the clashes between rival forces, but later released by the rebels in the area.

In the last two year, however, Daplual and Male villages have hosted thousands of civilians who abandoned their homes in Koch, Rubkuay and Leer areas, as a result of the ongoing skirmishes.

It is believed the area was safer for humanitarian agencies assisting those in need, but thousands fled due to recent attacks between the rival factions.

(ST)

Turkey has been able to deny Daesh access to an international border, the U.S. anti-Daesh coalition chief said Monday.

For as long as I have lived in this country – a quarter century, after all – the surest way for French politicians to put an end to their political career was to make a statement, however prudent, in favour of ‘liberalism’. Once labelled a ‘liberal’, you could be sure to be turned in no time into a ‘neo-liberal’ before being commonly and irremediably demonised as ‘ultra-liberal’ (whatever that means). Naming a party ‘lib-dem’ was either political satire or political suicide. Alain Madelin tried in 1998, but gave up in 2002 after having earned exactly 3.91% of the vote in the presidential election.

The primaries, however, seem to have changed things. With the right and centre virtually monopolising the political debate for several weeks, ‘liberalism’ is undergoing an unexpected semantic rehabilitation. The final TV debate between François Fillon and Alain Juppé on Thursday night – followed by an incredible 8.5 million audience – featured two candidates who advocated reforms for which the adjective ‘liberal’ appears perfectly appropriate. And they’re not alone!

Fillon, a Thatcherite liberal? Libération cover page, 22 Nov.

For the 2017 season, the liberalism fashion will actually come in three trends. There’s the daring yet sober design of Fillon’s self-proclaimed ‘radical’ costume, not without a certain reactionary chic. Then there’s the admittedly ‘less brutal’ Juppé outfit, which seems a little bit easier to wear and tries not to break too abruptly with traditional attire. And finally there is the stylish and trendy apparel designed by Emmanuel Macron, rather tasteful actually, but will it stand the test of the spring fashion shows?

‘Liberal’ is one of these key words that have a different meaning in different languages, shaped and draped with connotations by the local political culture. In a wonderful sketch by German humourist Loriot (yes, seriously: German humour!), a liberal-democrat politician keeps repeating in a TV debate that ‘in the liberal sense, liberal not only means liberal’. In the French Fifth Republic ‘liberal’ is traditionally perceived as a shortcut to ‘promotor of cynical laisser-faire capitalism’ and ‘strictly conservative in societal matters’ (not exactly what Fox News or breitbart.com would spontaneously associate).

Fillon, who obtained 2 903 564 votes on Sunday, fits this classical description remarkably well. What is new is that he is no longer ashamed of it. The reason is probably that he has felt that the discourse of the ugly, but simple and necessary truth is being received differently than ten or twenty years ago. Especially the electorate of Catholic obedience and heritage proves very sensitive to his logic of redemption: confession of decades of sinning is followed by punitive repentance and compensated with eternal salvation at the end of the tunnel.

Macron begs to differ. He regularly points out that ‘liberalism is a value of the left’. This would find the applause of the so-called ‘social democrats’, as embodied by former trade unionist, renowned editorialist and historian of the French left Jacques Julliard, who wrote after the 2005 referendum on the constitutional treaty that it was ‘extravagant that the socialist left has heaped opprobrium onto a doctrine that presided over its birth until the mid-19th century and has since then allowed Socialism to distinguish itself from its totalitarian twin’ (Le malheur français, Flammarion, 2005, p. 124). Liberalism was the French left’s ‘take-away’ from the Revolution, from Benjamin Constant to Alexis de Tocqueville (and no, I am not confusing ‘libérté’ et ‘libéralisme’).

For Macron, a true liberal is a politician who ‘attacks privilege and economic deadlock, while working for social mobility rather than favouring those who are already successful!’ According to him, the French confuse ‘liberal’ with ‘conservative’, simply ‘because we do not have a liberal tradition’, as he just recently explained again in an interview with Le Monde.

And there’s the rub. Since Mitterrand’s famous ‘turn to austerity’ in 1983, liberalism has always been equated with humiliating external disciplining, mostly imposed by Brussels and Bonn/Berlin, undermining the Welfare State and public services. Macron is already categorised as a ‘social-liberal’, which – you may have guessed – is a label bestowed only by the guardians of the true doctrine of the French left and comes very close to ‘evil’.

Macron’s clumsy catwalk.

In other words: the stage given to liberalist ideas by the fashion show of the right and the centre may be a very temporary one. Soon other fashion houses will stage their own parades and impose a different lexicon. Macron’s new garment of liberal economics and progressive social ideas does not correspond to traditional French taste. It is truly ‘disruptive’ (to quote one of his own favourite adjectives).

The renaissance and rehabilitation of the word ‘libéral’ is a remarkable feature of this early campaign phase. Whether it will be followed by a redefinition is another question.

Albrecht Sonntag
@albrechtsonntag

This is post # 4 on the French 2017 election marathon.
Post # 4 here.
Post # 3 here.
Post # 2 here.
Post # 1 here.

The post France 2017: The unexpected rehabilitation of an adjective appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, Ban Ki-moon, s'est dit profondément préoccupé par le regain de violence survenu la semaine dernière en République centrafricaine, alors que deux groupes armés, factions de l'ex-Séléka, le Front populaire pour la renaissance de la Centrafrique (FPRC) et l'Union pour la paix en Centrafrique (UPC), se sont affrontés à Bria, dans la préfecture de la Haute Kotto.

Le Comité des Nations unies pour l'élimination de la discrimination raciale (CERD) a demandé mardi au gouvernement du Burundi de prendre des mesures rapides et efficaces pour protéger les civils, notamment l'admission immédiate d'un contingent de la police des Nations Unies pour surveiller la situation en matière de sécurité et de droits humains dans le pays.

Expressing deep concerns over last week&#39s renewed violence in the Central African Republic that has reportedly claimed dozens of lives and displaced more than 11,000 persons &#8211 many civilians &#8211 United Nations Secretary-General has called on the armed groups to immediately and to &#8220genuinely&#8221 commit to peace.

Expressing deep concerns over last week&#39s renewed violence in the Central African Republic that has reportedly claimed dozens of lives and displaced more than 11,000 persons &#8211 many civilians &#8211 United Nations Secretary-General has called on the armed groups to immediately and to &#8220genuinely&#8221 commit to peace.

By Amb. Dhano Obongo

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in Eastern Africa Community was formed in1996 succeed the Intergovernmental Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD) which was formed as far back as 1986.

The objective for the formation of IGADD goes back to 1974 and 1984 when droughts, manmade and natural disasters hit the Eastern Africa countries badly, and as a result the leaders of the Eastern Africa nations came up with the idea of formation of IGADD.

IGAD is composed of eight nations in the Horn of Africa namely, Uganda, Sudan , Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia , Djibouti, South Sudan as well as Eritrea. It is worth mentioning here that, IGAD was mutually formed via the United Nations , and in 1986, the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments was held in Djibouti to sign the Accord which formally launched IGADD with main office based in Djibouti capital.

In 1996 in Nairobi, Kenya the Assembly of Heads of States & Governments amended the IGADD Charter & Agreement and changed and gave it a new name the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

The official language of IGAD is English and IGAD is headed by the Executive Secretary, Amb. Mahaboub Maalim, a Kenyan national. Amb. Maalim's two terms has come to an end and IGAD is looking for a new candidate from two countries namely Somalia and South Sudan. However, it's likely that the position of the Executive Secretary may be taken by a South Sudanese national. Am sure our leadership is doing its homework diligently and will recommend experienced , competent and seasoned candidates.

IGAD rules and regulations that, IGAD request three candidates to be nominated from a country who wants to contest for the position, then a panel goes through each candidate's CV and eventually they select the suitable candidate. The selected candidate would then be appointed by the Assembly of Heads of states and Governments for a tenure of four years renewable once. Furthermore, IGAD has a Committee of Ambassadors of IGAD composes of IGAD member state's residence Ambassadors accredited to the country of head office. These Ambassadors as frequently as the require advise and guide the Executive Secretary.

The purpose of this article is make our political leadership aware that, it would be significant to recommend three candidates as soon as possible, who are well experienced, competent as well as strong personalities. If I were our leadership I would recommend the following candidates for thier rich CV for the position of the Executive Secretary and they are:-
• Dr. Hon. Barnaba Marial Benjamin
• Amb. Emmanuel Lo-Willa
• Dr. Kuel Maluil Jok
From my point of view these three candidates are experienced and competent to compete for the position without any doubt and they can really represent South Sudan.

The current Executive Secretary was elected and appointed on 14th June 2008. I strongly believe that, it's a time for the South Sudan to play and demonstrate an active role in the regional multilateral diplomacy or in other words the conferences diplomacy. Let us not miss this golden opportunity.

Author can be reached via E-mail: dhano01obongo@gmail.com