Kioo17 Journal

BANJUL, Oct 23 (Reuters): "Togo's leader Faure Gnassingbe should resign immediately and the African Union and West African regional bloc ECOWAS should persuade him to step down if he does not,"  Gambia's Foreign Minister Ousainou Darboe said. Darboe's comments are an early sign that opinion is shifting against Gnassingbe who took power in 2005 on the death of his father who had ruled since 1967. Togo is enduring a political crisis in which at least 10 people have been killed in protests since August. "I think the African Union and ECOWAS should engage Togo and persuade the president to step down,"  Darboe told Reuters this weekend, adding that other countries need to step in.  "When it goes against accepted norms I don't think it should be treated as an internal affair." Currently, Gambia and Togo are the only countries in the 15-nation ECOWAS bloc without time limits on mandates. ECOWAS sought to make this law ...

Ministry of Health declines to endorse proposals to tackle teen pregnancy rates, with distribution of contraceptives to 15-year-olds branded an ‘erosion of morals’ A row has broken out in Uganda over proposals to extend sex education to 10-year-olds and give some 15-year-olds access to family planning services. The Ministry of Health has refused to endorse the guidelines, which were designed to tackle the country’s high teenage pregnancy rate , objecting that they are morally wrong and would encourage promiscuity and abortions. Activists condemned the decision as a “failure of leadership”. Uganda’s first lady and minister for education, Janet Museveni, has also waded in to the controversy, calling the distribution of free contraceptives an “erosion of morals”. At an event to mark International Day of the Girl last week, she said: “We no longer have pride to say no. People are given contraceptives to use them and do what they want, have sex, take pills, ...

BLANTYRE, MALAWI (AFP) : Malawian police said Friday (Oct 20) that 124 people had arrested after a vigilante mob killed two men accused of being "vampires" trying to obtain human blood for voodoo rituals. The killings bring the death toll to nine as vampire rumours have swept the country's southern region since last month, forcing authorities to impose a night-time curfew. "One person was burned and another stoned to death by angry mobs in incidents on Thursday for being suspected to be blood suckers," police spokesman Ramsy Mushani told AFP. The latest killings took place outside Blantyre, the country's commercial capital, where angry mobs clashed with police and blocked main roads to protest against the alleged vampire threat. The country's police chief said the 124 arrests had been made in a "coordinated operation". As public anger has grown, the UN - which is involved in food aid and agricultural programme...

ANJAY & ATUL GUPTA. Image: Citizen.co.za The caveat for bringing foreign workers into SA is that they must school South Africans in their job. The Gupta family’s capture of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) may have kept scores of South Africans out of jobs. The family and its businesses turned the DHA into their own private permit-issuing factory, using top officials to waive important requirements for work visas for at least 50 foreign nationals and family members, who were brought into South Africa to fill “critical” jobs such as project managers, chefs and chartered accountants. There were many qualified South Africans out of employment who could have done this work. The project flourished during the time current finance minister Malusi Gigaba was minister of home affairs, and involved a network of senior and middle level department officials. The evidence of the wholesale capture of the DHA is contained in the trove of Gupta e-mails. The permit pape...

Leading presidential candidate in Liberia and football legend George Weah attended a service of The Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), led by Pastor T.B. Joshua on Sunday. During his sermon, Joshua warmly welcomed Weah and spoke directly to him. “My brother is here today because he loves his country and wants God’s choice for his country,” Joshua stated. “He is not here to impose himself. What does God say about his country, Liberia? What is God’s opinion? That is why he is here.” The cleric reiterated that he was not favoring any particular side of the political spectrum but his own role was to pray for “the will of God” to be done in the nation of Liberia. “We are not herbalists or witch-doctors; we are people of God. God’s choice is our choice. We cannot pray against God’s will”. “Without God’s corresponding power, we cannot pray to Him. For every step we take – every movement and action – intimation comes first. “There must be suggestion from the Spirit to m...

Uganda has expelled North Korean military experts and representatives of North Korean companies, including its top arms dealer, as African nations face growing pressure to comply with U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. Any North Koreans still in the East African nation are diplomats or private individuals, Okello Oryem, a deputy minister of foreign affairs, told The Associated Press. “We are in full compliance,” Oryem said, adding that Uganda maintains normal diplomatic ties with North Korea. Uganda specifically demanded the exit of individuals representing the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation. It is North Korea’s primary arms dealer and is under U.N. and U.S. sanctions. The expulsion marks a policy shift for Uganda’s government, which previously had warm relations with Pyongyang. North Korea for years trained the Ugandan security forces in physical fitness, maritime warfare and weapons handling. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni...

GABRIELLE MAINA. Image: facebook. The lawyer of Australian teacher Gabrielle Maina has urged authorities to keep investigating why the mother-of-two was shot dead in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. The NSW teacher was shot in the exclusive suburb of Karen on Thursday during a what was believed to a botched robbery reportedly involving assailants on motorbikes. "It is important for them (Department of Foreign Affairs) to keep on pushing until it is certain as to what caused her death," Ms Maina's lawyer told ABC Radio on Sunday. However, it's possible the shooting was targeted with Ms Maina's lawyer telling the ABC she was kneeling during the shooting. THE STREET IN NAIROBI,KENYA WHERE GABRIELLE WAS MURDERED. Image: wikicommon. "The shooting happened when she was kneeling and someone was standing," the lawyer said. It's believed Ms Maina had just dropped off her son at a friend's home. Security company Insight Secure, w...

A 51-year-old woman born in Kolkata, India, Minati Mondal, had been experiencing terrible stomach pains and acid reflux for two months, so she went to the hospital to find out what was going on. After they did scans, they were floored with what they found inside of her! Mondal’s scans showed gallstones, so she went into surgery to have them removed. That’s when the doctors discovered something incredible. Mondal had 11,950 stones inside of her! These gallstones are balls made up of salts and cholesterol that form in the gallbladder. Many people can go on with their regular day-to-day life with gallstones, but once they start to block the gallbladder you will start to experience pain, feel ill and it can possibly cause an illness that could become fatal. A fatty diet causes the risk of gallstones building up and the risk in commonly higher in women. SOURCE: goodfulness.com

Two South Africans and one Ugandan are among 12 men arrested for presumed homosexuality in Tanzania as part of an ongoing crackdown against gays, police said on Wednesday. "We arrested the criminals at (the hotel) Peacock, they were promoting homosexuality. Two are South Africans, one Ugandan and nine Tanzanians," Dar es Salaam police head Lazaro Mambosasa said at a weekly press conference. He said the 12 were being questioned ahead of being sent to a court and did not say when they had been arrested. "Tanzania law forbids this act between people of the same sex, it is a violation of our country's laws," said Mambosasa. He added the hotel manager was among those arrested for "providing a room" for the others. Mambosasa urged citizens to notify authorities if they caught wind of such activities "so we can act in time". Police made 20 arrests - eight men and 12 women - on similar grounds on Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipela...

This is a cautionary tale, not one to make you afraid but one to make you aware. It’s highly unfortunate that an experience such as this that happened to Brianna, but it will now be used as an example to showcase to the world: the harmful effects that energy drinks have on our whole body. I urge all readers to take into consideration, more so than ever, what happens to your body and potentially your family when you continue to choose to neglect your body. Most people who live in western society are expected to, and often times have no choice but to work Monday-Friday 9-5, just to make ends meet in order to support their families. Humans have been finding difficulty meeting the demands that their workplace expects from them. Long commutes to work usually make a person feel tired, depressed, and even anxious, and with mental illness on the rise, it’s truly no surprise that people resort to external substances to keep them alert and on the go. These substances can come in many for...