KINSHASA – Congo’s political standoff deepened yesterday after the top court backed the contested presidential election victory of Felix Tshisekedi, then his main rival rejected the ruling, called for protests and declared himself leader. As Tshisekedi’s supporters celebrated the ruling in the streets of Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, runner-up Martin Fayulu said the decision had opened the way to a “constitutional coup d’etat”, raising fears of more violence.

Following the court decision, the African Union postponed a visit by a high-level delegation to Kinshasa that had been scheduled for Monday to discuss the crisis. It has previously expressed “serious concerns” about the vote and called for the results to be delayed. Last month’s election was meant to mark the first democratic transfer of power in the vast central African country, where conflicts have regularly destabilised the region.(reuters)…[+]

The long arm of the law will be reaching those business people who are behind the importation of illegal weapons through the Bridgetown Port.  “If they are being used unwittingly, it has to be stopped. If they are participating in it willingly, that has to come to an end,” Attorney General Dale Marshall declared on Saturday.

The Attorney General was speaking 48 hours after responsibility for the Police Force and the Preservation of Public Order was shifted from Home Affairs Minister Edmund Hinkson to him on Thursday.  His comments came as he revealed the Bridgetown Port would be getting two new container scanners and one of the existing ones would be fixed by the end of February so as to allow for better detection of illegal weapons.(Barbados Nation)…[+]

Sweden’s parliament has voted to give the Social Democrat leader, Stefan Löfven, a second term in office at the head of a new centre-left minority government, ending more than four months of deadlock following an inconclusive election.

The caretaker prime minister will take office on Monday, governing in a coalition with the Green party and with the parliamentary backing of the Centre and Liberal parties, formerly members of the four-party centre-right opposition Alliance. The 9 September election produced a hung parliament, with the centre-right and centre-left blocs that have dominated Swedish politics for decades each securing about 40% of the vote and separated by a single seat, heralding months of complex coalition talks.

Neither bloc was easily able to form a new government without in some way involving the third-biggest party, the far-right, anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, with whom all other parties have refused to cooperate at national level. “More and more governments are becoming reliant on parties with an anti-democratic agenda,” Löfven said after winning the vote in parliament. “But in Sweden we stand up for democracy, for equality. Sweden has chosen a different path.”(theguardian)…[+]

CARACAS – Venezuela will receive 2,000 Cuban doctors who left Brazil following a dispute between the Communist-run island and the government of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who ordered an end to their stay after taking office this year. Bolsonaro said some 11,000 doctors were being used as “slave labor” and demanded that the Cuban government, which took 75 percent of their salaries, allow them to be paid in full and have their families join them.

Cuba refused and pulled the doctors out.“Next week, we’re going to have a special event that celebrates the arrival of 2,000 new community doctors that Cuba is sending us. They are coming from Brazil,” President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised broadcast. “Brazilian fascism ended the health plan, and the 2,000 doctors are coming to Venezuela,” he said. Clinics run by Cuban doctors were a signature program of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who enjoyed an oil windfall during his 14-year rule that ended with his 2013 death from cancer. Venezuela paid for the medical services with shipments of oil.(reuters)…[+]

A Canadian man, who reportedly attempted to smuggle just more than seven pounds of cocaine out of the island last November, is likely to plead guilty to breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act when he reappears in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court today.

The accused, 55-year-old David Barnes, an upholsterer of Toronto, Canada was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, dealing in cocaine and attempting to export cocaine after the drugs was found in his luggage at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston. According to a police report, on November 11, about 2:20 pm, Barnes checked into the airport to board a flight home when a drug-sniffing dog at the airport led authorities to one of his suitcases which allegedly had cocaine weighing more than seven pounds.

The Canadian was subsequently arrested and charge for the drugs, which is estimated to have a street value of $4 million. When Barnes appeared in court Wednesday his Attorney Alicia Campbell told Parish Judge Vaughn Smith that her client was planning to take a certain course but that she needs to have further discussion with him. He was subsequently remanded to return to court today.(Jamaica Observer)….[+]

Thousands of people have fled into Cameroon from north-east Nigeria following violent attacks by a faction of the militant group Boko Haram, which looted and destroyed large parts of a major town.

More than 8,000 refugees have crossed the border into Bodo after the attacks on the Nigerian town of Rann on Monday, in which at least 10 people are thought to have been killed. Homes and humanitarian organisations’ buildings were burned down. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it was preparing to help 15,000 people with food, water and medicine. The organisation released photos showing smouldering buildings that had been burned to the ground, and columns of fleeing people crossing a river, their few belongings balanced on their heads.

“What struck me when we arrived was the silence. Usually Rann bustles with life, but yesterday it was eerie and quiet, like a graveyard. The town has been devastated and I was devastated to see it,” said Isa Sadiq Bwala, an MSF nurse.(theguardian)…[+]

WASHINGTON – In a victory for President Donald Trump, the U.S. Senate yesterday rejected legislation to keep sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, including aluminum firm Rusal. Senators voted 57-42 to end debate on the measure, as 11 of Trump’s fellow Republicans broke from party leaders to join Democrats in favor of the resolution, amid questions about Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That result fell short of the 60 votes necessary to advance to a final passage vote in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority.A similar measure will be brought up for a vote on Thursday in the House of Representatives, where Democrats control a majority of seats. But its long-term fate was uncertain. To keep the administration from lifting the sanctions, the measure must pass both the House and Senate and muster the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to override an expected Trump veto.(Reuters)…[+]

The son of a retired police inspector has become the fourth person to be arrested and charged with the kidnapping, rape and robbery of two women days before the new year. Anniece Ravello, 28 of San Fernando appeared before magistrate Alicia Chankar claiming that his life had been threatened by his co-accused after he assisted the police in the matter.

Ravello faced the same charges as Jerod Boysie aka Raymond Abdul, 20, Joshua Williams, 31 and Rueben Thomas, 20. It was alleged that he together with others on December 29 2018 at M2 Ring Road, Debe and armed with a firearm, used personal violence as they robbed one woman of her $1,800 cellular phone and another of $40, a cell phone valued $1,500, a pair of $300 gold earrings. It was also alleged that at that location he and others had sexual intercourse with the women without their consent and committed grievous sexual assault on them. Ravello was also charged that on that day he, together with others, took and carried away the women against her will from south Trinidad.(Trinidad Express)…[+]

The UN is to try to prevent the collapse of the ceasefire agreement in Yemenby endorsing a fresh security council resolution urgently increasing the number of monitors overseeing the deal in Hodeidah, the strategic port that lies at the heart of the three-year civil war. The resolution, drafted by the UK, would extend the UN monitoring role for a further six months and increase the number of monitors to as many as 75 people. UN personnel were likely to be transferred from Djibouti to Hodeida.

Both the Houthi rebels and the UN-backed government of Yemen’s president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, have accused each other of multiple breaches of the ceasefire. The terms of that ceasefire – agreed in haste at UN-brokered talks in Stockholm in December – were seen as flawed due to a lack of precision and the country’s geographical limits. The absence of an adequate number of UN monitors has also made it more difficult for the UN to ascribe responsibility for breaches, and so prevent their repetition.(theguardian)…[+]

One day in early 2017, Chris Christie was in his kitchen in New Jersey, eating dinner with his wife Mary Pat. The phone rang. It was the president.According to Christie, Donald Trump tried, not for the first time, to persuade the governor to become his labor secretary. Then talk turned to Christie’s firing as Trump’s transition chairman in November 2016.

“Chris,” Trump said, “you didn’t get fired. You got made part of a larger team.” Christie gives his side of the conversation in his new book, Let Me Finish, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian two weeks before publication. He says he bristled at Trump’s claim, then rebuked the president.“I’m a big boy who understands how the way this business works,” he said. “But please, sir, don’t ever, ever tell me again that I wasn’t fired.”

Christie was fired, by then senior aide Steve Bannon in his office at Trump Tower. Christie depicts the scene in withering detail, saying Bannon blamed the move on Jared Kushner, “the kid”, Trump’s son-in law and adviser who is portrayed as the chief villain of the piece, driven by a decade-old family feud. But the remark Christie reports Trump making brought back to attention a frequently observed feature of the billionaire’s presidency: the man whose TV catchphrase, “You’re fired!”, did much to propel him to power does not like firing people himself.(theguardian)…[+]