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page 30 CAR CAR’s president vows peace, reforms at inauguration Central African Republic’s newly elected president, Faustin-Archange Touadera, said at his inauguration on Wednesday that he would focus on building peace and enacting reforms to end years of violent turmoil in the impoverished, landlocked nation. A former prime minister, Touadera won a presidential run-off last […]

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CAR

CAR’s president vows peace, reforms at inauguration

Central African Republic’s newly elected president, Faustin-Archange Touadera, said at his inauguration on Wednesday that he would focus on building peace and enacting reforms to end years of violent turmoil in the impoverished, landlocked nation.

A former prime minister, Touadera won a presidential run-off last month in what was widely seen as a step towards reconciliation after years of violent turmoil.

But huge challenges remain in Central African Republic, (CAR), one of the world’s most unstable countries, which is divided along ethnic and religious lines and is largely still controlled by warlords.

Touadera said he aimed to disarm the country’s rival factions, reform the armed forces and boost the agriculture sector.

“I will make sure to quickly apply the Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration program,” he said in his inauguration speech.

“We’re going to make CAR a united country, a country of peace, a country facing development.”

SWITZERLAND

UN urges leaders to accept more refugees

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on governments around the world to allow in more Syrian refugees and “counter fear-mongering” about them.

At a conference in Geneva on Wednesday, Ban urged countries to “act with solidarity, in the name of our shared humanity, by pledging new and additional pathways for the admission of Syrian refugees”.

He said they can do so through “resettlement or humanitarian admission, family reunions, as well as labour or study opportunities”.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR convened a meeting of more than 90 countries at the Swiss UN seat in Geneva, aiming to win new pledges for resettlement and family reunification programmes, as well as study visas.

“We are here to address the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time,” Ban said.

Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq have been hosting most of the five million refugees of Syria’s conflict, which has put serious strains on state budgets and public services.

“Communities hosting refugees in neighbouring countries are exhausted,” Ban said.

TANZANIA

Tanzania’s President Magufuli ‘to slash’ civil servant salaries

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has promised to slash the salaries of senior civil servants, cutting the top wage threshold by almost two-thirds.

He told supporters that it was shameful that some top officials were earning $18,000 (£13,000) a month, while others were paid as little as $140.

Officials not ready to accept the new $7,000 monthly wage limit should “start looking for alternative jobs”, he said.

Mr Magufuli has promised to cut wasteful public expenditure in office.

The changes would come into effect in time for the start of the next financial year, which starts on 1 July, the president said.

He likened the gulf in wages to a few “angels residing in heaven”, while the majority “languished as if they were in hell”, Tanzania’s The Citizen newspaper quotes him as saying.

Junior civil servants would see their salaries increase as part of the new policy, Mr Magufuli added.

SYRIA

Assad says he can form new Syria government with opposition

President Bashar al-Assad said it would not be difficult to agree a new Syrian government including opposition figures, but his opponents responded on Wednesday that no administration would be legitimate while he remained in office.

Assad, bolstered by military victory in the desert city of Palmyra, was quoted by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying a new draft constitution could be ready in weeks and a government that included opposition, independents and loyalists could be agreed.

While the distribution of portfolios and other technical issues would need to be discussed at Geneva peace talks, which resume next month, “these are not difficult questions”, Assad said.

Opposition negotiators immediately dismissed Assad’s remarks, saying that a political settlement could be reached only by establishing a transitional body with full powers, not another government under Assad.

LIBYA

Libya’s unity government leaders in Tripoli power bid

Leaders of Libya’s new unity government have arrived in the capital, Tripoli, by boat in an attempt to take control.

Over recent days, Tripoli’s airspace has been intermittently closed to stop the Presidency Council, which has been based in Tunisia, from arriving by air.

Libya’s UN envoy called for a “peaceful and orderly handover”.

But hardliners in the coalition that controls Tripoli are opposed to the UN-brokered deal aimed at reconciling a nation split by five years of conflict.

Libya has been in chaos since the 2011 overthrow of long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi by Nato-backed forces.

From 2014 it has had two competing administrations, one in Tripoli – backed by powerful militias – and the other about 1,000km (620 miles) away in the port city of Tobruk.

PALESTINE

Palestine celebrates ‘Land Day’, calls for end of Israel’s occupation

Palestinians, both in the country and abroad yesterday marked “Land Day” with a call on the international community to pressure Israel to respect the 1995 Oslo Agreement and halt its illegal settlement policies in West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Land Day, celebrated on March 30 of each year, dates back to 1976, when six Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire during demonstrations that broke out against Israel’s seizure of thousands of square kilometers of Arab land.

The Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Saleh A. Fhied, told Daily Trust that the commemoration of Land Day signifies its historical significance and stresses the Palestinians’ persistence in defending their rights to land ownership.

He decried the increase in the confiscation of land in the occupied territory by Israel. This, he said, was to forestall any possibility of establishing a viable, independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital.

“We mark this important Land Day as a warning alarm to the international community and the peace-loving people around the world to pressure Israel to abide by the international law and halt its illegal settlement policies in West Bank and East Jerusalem,” the envoy said.

MYANMAR

Kyaw sworn in as president in historic power shift

Seventy-year-old Htin Kyaw took the oath of office Wednesday during a brief ceremony before a joint session of parliament, pledging loyalty “to the republic of the Union of Myanmar.” The country’s two vice presidents, Myint Swe and Henry Van Tio, took the oath alongside Htin Kyaw.

Htin Kyaw’s swearing in formally marks the end of total or partial military rule in Myanmar dating back to 1962. He succeeds Thein Sein, a former general who took power in 2011 when the junta turned over control to a quasi-civilian government and pushed through sweeping political and economic reforms.

In his inaugural speech, the new president vowed to change the current constitution so that it fully embraces democratic standards. The constitution drafted by the military before it turned over power guaranteed the military would hold 25 percent of all parliamentary seats, plus the key ministerial posts of home affairs and defense.

CYPRUS

Cyprus remands suspected hijacker who wanted to see ex-wife

The hijacker of an EgyptAir flight from Alexandria to Cairo has told police he acted because he wanted to see his estranged wife and children in Cyprus.

The 59-year-old, identified as Seif el-Din Mustafa, took charge of Tuesday’s early-morning flight MS181 by flashing what appeared to be a belt stuffed with plastic wires and a remote control.

He forced the plane, with 81 people on board, to be diverted to Larnaca in Cyprus but surrendered after a five-hour standoff.

A Larnaca court on Wednesday ordered Mustafa to be held in custody for eight days on suspicion of hijacking, abduction, threatening violence, terrorism-related offences and two counts related to possession of explosives.

“When someone hasn’t seen his family for 24 years and wants to see his wife and children, and the Egyptian government doesn’t allow it, what should one do?” the hijacker told Cypriot police in a statement.

BANGLADESH

Arrest warrant issued for former Bangladesh PM

A Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia over a deadly fire-bomb attack last year, a prosecutor said.

The court on Wednesday also issued arrest warrants for 27 leaders and activists of Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party in connection with the petrol-bomb attack on a bus during a party protest in the capital Dhaka in January 2015.

“The court passed the order after accepting the charges against them,” public prosecutor Shah Alam Talukdar said.

Early last year, at least 120 people were killed and hundreds injured in political violence, most in petrol-bomb attacks on vehicles amid transport blockades and strikes by the opposition aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

FRANCE

France drops plan to strip attackers of citizenship

French President Francois Hollande has dropped plans to change the constitution to strip militants convicted of terror attacks of their French nationality.

“A compromise appears out of reach,” Mr Hollande said after the two houses of parliament failed to agree the reforms.

The proposal followed November’s Paris attacks which killed 130 people. But it ran into huge opposition and led to Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigning in February.

“I noticed that parts of the opposition have been hostile to any revision of the constitution,” Mr Hollande said after a cabinet meeting.

But former president and leader of the opposition party, The Republicans, Nicolas Sarkozy, said Mr Hollande’s leadership was at fault.

KENYA

Kenyan law brings in breastfeeding stations in offices

Kenya’s parliament has approved a bill which would force companies to set aside special breastfeeding areas for employees with children.

The breastfeeding stations would include breast pumps for expressing milk and fridges.

The bill also states that employers must give time for women to breastfeed.

Rachel Nyamai, the MP who proposed the bill, said it will help women work and at the same time improve children’s health.

The law is not about dealing with a stigma around breastfeeding because breastfeeding in public areas is considered normal.