Kioo17 Journal

Norwegian marine experts have encountered a beluga whale they believe was been trained by the Russian navy to harass foreign shipping as part of a wider program of utilizing marine mammals in military operations. The whale was spotted in the Barents Sea close to the small village of Inga in the far north of the country last week, The Guardian reported. Fishermen became suspicious when they saw that the animal was wearing a black harness and appeared to repeatedly seek out their boats. One of the fishermen, Joar Hesten, told the Norwegian NRK broadcaster that the whale was swimming between the fishing boats and trying to pull straps and ropes from the sides of the vessels. Hesten described the animal as very tame and suggested it was well used to human beings. The harness, which appeared configured to carry a camera or even weapons, was retrieved from the whale. Writing inside read, “Equipment of St. Petersburg.” Martin Biuw of the Institute of Marine Research...

Harare, ZIMBABWE : Parents in Zimbabwe who cannot afford school fees can offer livestock such as goats or sheep as payment, a government minister has said. The country's education minister Lazarus Dokora told the pro-government Sunday Mail newspaper that schools will have to show flexibility when it comes to demanding tuition fees from parents, and that they should accept not only livestock, but also services and skills. "If there is a builder in the community, he/she must be given that opportunity to work as a form of payment of tuition fees,"  the paper quoted him as saying. Some schools are already accepting livestock as payments, the Sunday Mail reports. A ministry official clarified Dr Dokora's comments: "Parents of the concerned children can pay the fees using livestock. That is mostly for rural areas, but parents in towns and cities can pay through other means; for instance, doing certain work for the school." It follows a m...

Jakarta, INDONESIA: Ten days after Indonesia held the world’s biggest single-day elections, officials say more than 270 election staff have died, mostly of fatigue-related illneses caused by long hours of work counting millions of ballot papers by hand. The 17 April elections were the first time the country of 260 million people combined the presidential vote with national and regional parliamentary ones, with an aim to cut costs. It was dubbed the world's biggest single day elections as 80% of 264 million Indonesians cast their ballots on April 17. Image: Mashable. Voting was largely peaceful and was estimated to have drawn 80% of the total 193 million voters, who each had to punch up to five ballot papers in more than 800,000 polling stations. But conducting the eight-hour vote in a country that stretches more than 5,000km (3,000 miles) from its western to eastern tips has been a huge logistical feat and deadly for officials, who had to count ballot paper...

Thousands of lions are being bred on farms in South Africa and then killed by rich trophy hunters, a shocking report has revealed. It also found that other big cats are being butchered and used for 'medicines' after being sold to buyers in the Far East. The cruel and lucrative industry which is common in South Africa has been exposed by a year-long investigation by former Tory peer Lord Ashcroft. He has slammed the Government over its failure to ban imported trophy skins and says it is complicit in the trade. According to Lord Ashcroft’s exposé published in on UK newspaper "Sunday Mail", 54 lions were killed in a slaughterhouse at a so-called ‘eco-farm’ in just two days. Gruesome pictures show their innards and bones scattered all over the floor while other body parts were stacked up in overflowing plastic bags. The study, published yesterday, found hunters are willing to pay up to £42,000 to slaughter a lion, depending on its size. Clients ar...

In Africa, many leaders have been sending their condolences to Notre Dame, but the Guinean leader and an Ivorian Chief did more than that. President Alpha Conde of Guinea Republic, a former French colony, is reported to have donated two million euros and a Chief from a traditional area in Ivory Coast, Amon N’Douffou V of Sanwi in southeastern, on Tuesday, pledged financial support towards rebuilding the iconic structure in Paris. Alpha Condé born on 4 March 1938 is the President of Guinea since December 2010. Image: Bloomberg. According to Borgen Project Guinea is a West African country known for its rich reserves of iron ore, gold, bauxite and other minerals. Despite the wealth these resources generate, Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world. Guinea has the highest per capita income on the continent of Africa, yet more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, with around 20 percent in extreme. The poverty statistics in Guinea are stagge...

Sao Paulo, BRAZIL: A parrot in Brazil was taken into custody for warning his drug-dealing owner that cops were about to launch a raid — squawking, “Mummy, police!” The green-feathered watchdog began screeching loudly the moment officers showed up at his home in the eastern city of Teresina, the local media ' Oliberal' reported. “He must have been trained for that,” a police officer involved in the operation told the paper. “As soon as police got close, he began shouting.” The bird’s efforts were not successful, however. Footage of the raid’s aftermath aired by R7 shows police cataloguing small bags of crack while the parrot sits obediently on a countertop next to a racecar helmet and a glass bottle. His apparent owners, a man and teenage girl, were arrested, local newspaper Meio Norte reported. An officer then carried the papagaio do tráfico — or “trafficking parrot,” as news outlets referred to the bird — out of the house on his fingertip, before plac...

Los Angeles, UNITED STATES : Kanye West‘s Easter version of his Sunday Service at the second weekend of Coachella drew massive crowds — and inspired West to consider a more permanent spiritual path. “He is extremely passionate about his faith and wants to share it more regularly with people,” a source close to West told PEOPLE Magazine. “He spends a lot of time studying and praying, and wants to share his journey.” “Say what you want about Kanye, but he really does want to help people who need support,”  the source continues.  “He understands brokenness and the need for healing, probably more than most people. He believes in the healing powers of music, but also believes that God can step in and heal people’s brokenness and their issues.” According to infamous entertainment news website 'TMZ', Coachella production sources counted over 50,000 people in attendance at the event, which was also live-streamed on YouTube. Among the fam...

Mbabane, eSWATINI: Burundian and African football fraternity is mourning the death of midfielder Papy Faty who passed away on Thursday during a match in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Faty Papy (18 September 1990 – 25 April 2019) was a Burundian professional association football player who played for Bidvest Wits in the South African soccer premier league. Image: Kickoff. The 28-year old collapsed and died on Thursday in the 15th minute of his club’s clash against Green Mamba. Paty was part of the team that made history by qualifying the Burundian National team to their first ever African Cup of Nations last month. He, in January, had been warned by doctors in South Africa to stop playing and undergo a surgery to solve his heart condition but he rejected the advice and thus parted ways with his South African side Bidvest Wits. Papy was among the players that were confident of representing the Intamba mu Rugamba in the continental showpiece in June. SOURCE:...

Lilongwe, MALAWI: As the World Health Organization marks World Malaria Day, April 25, Malawi has launched the pilot phase of Africa's first ever malaria vaccine. The WHO chose Malawi, alongside Ghana and Kenya, because of the high numbers of malaria cases and treatment facilities. The pilot phase aims to vaccinate 360,000 children per year, 120,000 of them in Malawi. But, while the vaccine is expected to save thousands of lives, its effectiveness is limited. Health officials at Malawi's Likuni Community Hospital are giving children injections of Africa's first malaria vaccine. A medical worker at Likuni Community Hospital, in Lilongwe, Malawai, draws the malaria vaccine into a syringe for vaccination. Image: VOA. The mosquito-spread disease kills more than 430,000 people per year, most of them African children. It took more than 30 years and nearly $1 billion to develop a vaccine against malaria. Known as RTS-S, the vaccine is only helpful for...

Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA : Former president FW de Klerk says there is an element of truth that life and public services were better under the apartheid government. De Klerk, who was speaking on eNCA’s The First Citizen program says this assertion is solely based, not on race and colour, but on the nine years during the Jacob Zuma presidency. The former president (1989 - 1994) described the Zuma administration (2009 - 2018) as “nine lost years” which have damaged the country. “... because of bad appointments made in the nine lost years, inter alia, of cadres, instead of people with the right experience, with the right training into management posts. “People were appointed because of their connections instead of because of their knowledge and their experience. I think this has harmed service delivery tremendously.” De Klerk said he believed the opportunity to build a truly non-racial and just society was wasted during the Zuma years. He advi...

London, UNITED KINGDOM : United Kingdom employers may consider banning handshakes under new rules about physical contact at work. To avoid confusion about what kind of touch is acceptable, they may ban it altogether to avoid costly sexual harassment claims. It comes as a survey found three out of four people want a total ban on physical contact in the workplace. Kate Palmer, associate director of advisory at HR consultancy Peninsula, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Some employers may put a complete ban on physical contact. Whether that’s going too far or not is a question I would pose, because it’s contextual. Does shaking someone’s hand go too far? ‘They may just say ‘no contact at all’ because there’s no grey area. It makes it simple, but it takes away affection which in some ways is a sad thing.’ She said that the #MeToo movement had prompted employers to think hard about how to prevent sexual harassment claims, in some cases implementing more ‘black and white’ policies. ...

Issad Rebrab. Image: Observargerie. Algers, ALGERIA: Algeria’s richest man Issad Rebrab has been detained in jail on the public prosecutor’s orders, state media reported Tuesday a day after his arrest as part of a corruption probe. The crackdown on alleged graft follows the resignation of veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in early April after weeks of mass protests against his 20-year rule. Rebrab, the 74-year-old chief executive of Algeria’s biggest privately-owned conglomerate Cevital, was placed in detention overnight according to the APS news agency. Forbes magazine lists Rebrab as Algeria’s richest man and the sixth-wealthiest in Africa, with a net worth of $3.38 billion in 2019. He is “suspected of having made fake statements concerning the transfer of funds to and from abroad,”  APS reported. He is also suspected of having imported “used equipment” despite enjoying tax and customs breaks made available by authorities for the purchase of ne...

Ottawa, CANADA : The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, has pleaded without Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, to allow one million Kenyans enter Canada under a new Employment and Migration Programme designed for immigrants. According to Trudeau, immigrants from Kenya have been a strong force in Canada’s growth in all sectors of its economy. “We can’t undermine or overlook the contribution of immigrants in Canada’s development especially our brothers and sisters from Kenya”, Trudeau said. The PM added that, over the past three years, Canada has granted residency to all Kenyans who were illegally living in Canada and applied to remain. “We granted them and urging everyone to apply. It’s good we document everyone to know how many people we are to cater for” , he said. In a memo sent to the Kenya Embassy in Canada, the Employment and Migration Programme will allow Kenyans wishing to live in Canada to first obtain job before traveling to the country. “The ...

Mohamed Toure and Denise Cros-Toure, both 58, were each sentenced to seven years in federal prison. Image: Tarrant County Sheriff's Department, via Associated Press. Texas, UNITED STATES: A couple who enslaved a Guinean girl for 16 years at their Dallas-area home, forcing her to cook and clean while calling her a “dog,” were each sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison, the authorities said. The couple, Mohamed Toure, 58, and Denise Cros-Toure, 58, of Southlake, Tex., who are citizens of Guinea, may be deported after their prison sentence, prosecutors said. They were also ordered to pay almost $290,000 in restitution. They were found guilty by a federal jury in January of several crimes, including one count each of forced labor. Mr. Toure is the son of Guinea’s first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré, who led the West African country for 26 years until his death in 1984. Ahmed Sekou Toure(January 9 1922 - February 26 1984) was the first president of G...

Nina Surgutskaya. Image: East West News. Kursk, RUSSIA: A Russian doctor has confessed to murdering and dismembering a woman he dated when he discovered she had undergone sex change surgery. Dr.Mikhail Tikhonov. Image: east2west news. Mikhail Tikhonov, 27, cooked some of her body parts in her oven and flushed her remains down the toilet, he told police. He had a night out with Nina Surgutskaya, 25, in Kursk, before going back to her flat, he said. The pair were having sex when he realised that she was "transexual" and had undergone surgery. He immediately strangled her on her bed and then to hide the murder, dismembered her corpse, he told police interrogators. A photo taken at the scene of the crime in Kursk. Image: east2west news. Tikhonov was detained and questioned after Nina went missing and her mother called in police to investigate. The police report into the incident said: “Nina invited him to her flat. “They continued to ...

Monrovia, LIBERIA: Snakes have been found in Liberian President George Weah's office, forcing him to work from his private residence, the BBC has learnt. Press secretary Smith Toby told the BBC that on Wednesday two black snakes were found in the foreign affairs ministry building, his official place of work. All staff have been told to stay away until 22 April. "It's just to make sure that crawling and creeping things get fumigated from the building," Mr Toby said. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosts the office of the president, so it did an internal memo asking the staff to stay home while they do the fumigation," he said. The office of the president has been based in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since a fire in 2006 gutted the nearby presidential mansion. A  Frontpage Africa news website video shows workers trying to attack the snakeswhen they appeared near the building's reception. Tap To Watch The Video: Sourc...