Foreign News: Mozambique Elections, Ebola death toll, Spanish Monarchy Secession

12 Oct, 2014 - 09:10 0 Views
Foreign News: Mozambique Elections, Ebola death toll, Spanish Monarchy Secession Filipe Nyussi

The Sunday Mail

Mozambique ready for polls

Filipe Nyussi

Filipe Nyussi

Mozambicans go to the polls on Wednesday as the country stands on the cusp of reaping vast oil and gas wealth.

Frelimo, a once Marxist-Leninist party that has ruled since independence from Portugal in 1975, is almost certain to win.

But it will emerge with a new president at the helm and, in all likelihood, a lower margin of victory.

The party’s nominee is little-known Filipe Nyussi (55) who would be Mozambique’s first post-colonial leader with no liberation war credentials.

Nyusi would replace his mentor and outgoing president Armando Guebuza (71) whose term in office was marked by rapid economic expansion.

The Southern African nation is forecast to see its GDP expand by 8,3 percent this year, according to the IMF.

But it has been growth that has done little to curb ingrained poverty. The lack of improvement in living standards for ordinary Mozambicans has some calling for change.

Frelimo’s support could drop from 75 percent of voters in 2009 to around 60 percent, according to analysts.

Frelimo’s civil war foe and main electoral rival, Afonso Dhlakama (61) only emerged last month from the bush where he was holed up for two years as his supporters fought running skirmishes with government forces.

Dhlakama’s Renamo party posters may be outnumbered by the bright red portraits of Nyusi plastered around the colonial seaside capital of Maputo, but in the centre of the country his rallies have drawn huge crowds.

But some, like former municipal councillor Issuf Mohamed, believe a lot of those supporters may not be registered voters because Dhlakama’s decision to run came so late.

There are serious questions about how Dhlakama will react if he does not do well in the vote, and analysts do not rule out the risk of low-level post-election violence.

Would-be president Nyusi will also have to defeat a relatively new kid on the block, the centrist Mozambique Democratic Movement, founded just five years ago. The MDM sprung a surprise in last year’s municipal elections, garnering 41 percent of the votes in Maputo. Its presidential candidate is Daviz Simango (50) mayor of the second-largest city of Beira.

Whoever wins the election will face a clamour for control of vast gas, oil and coal revenue.

“Competition for state power is intensifying due to growing opportunities to benefit from extractives wealth,” said Maplecroft risk analyst Charles Laurie.

The result will be closely watched by global investors who are pouring millions of dollars into the country.

Besides the presidential vote, the 10,9 million registered voters in a country of 25 million people will also be electing 250 lawmakers.

Currently, Frelimo enjoys an absolute majority in the legislature with 191 seats against Renamo’s 51 and MDM’s eight. — AFP.

 

Pastor knowingly spreads HIV to congregation

An Alabama-based church pastor confessed to members of his church that he had been HIV positive for the past eleven years and had several sexual encounters with congregants.

Instead of offering a sermon to the hundreds of church members who had come in for their weekly service on a Sunday, Juan Macfarland of the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Alabama, USA told them he was HIV positive.

He didn’t stop there as he went on to explain that he was diagnosed in 2003 and had since slept with several women in the congregation without telling them his status.

According to thedailoybeast.com, Macfarland suggested that he had received divine intervention which prompted him to reveal his sins.

He later confessed to having his sexual encounters on church property, using illegal drugs and abusing church funds.

A decision was taken by the church board to fire Macfarland. — Times Live.

 

Ebola death toll crosses 4 000 mark

Ebola Virus

Ebola Virus

More than 4 000 people have died in the Ebola epidemic that broke out in West Africa at the start of the year, according to the latest figures released by the World Health Organisation.

The WHO said on Friday that as of October 8, 4 033 people have died of Ebola out of a total of 8,399 registered cases in seven countries. The last toll put the figures at 3 865 dead from 8 033 cases.

The seven affected countries are split into two groups by WHO. The first includes Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — by far the worst-affected countries.

The second group consists of Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and US, which have seen a small number of highly isolated cases.

Liberia is the worst-hit of all, with 4 076 cases and 2 316 deaths, followed by Sierra Leone with 2 950 cases and 930 deaths.

Guinea, where the epidemic originated in December, has seen 1 350 cases and 778 deaths.

Health workers continue to pay a heavy price for their efforts, with 233 deaths out of 416 cases across the countries.

Nigeria has now been declared Ebola-free and its toll remains unchanged at eight dead from 20 cases.

There has been one death in the US and one case contracted in Spain. The toll remains unchanged in Senegal with one case.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, hit by a separate strain of Ebola from the one raging in West Africa, WHO says there have been 71 cases and 43 deaths up to October 7.

The UN special envoy on Ebola said on Friday that the number of cases was probably doubling every three-to-four weeks and the response needed to be 20 times greater than it was at the beginning of October.

David Nabarro told the UN General Assembly that without the mass mobilisation of the world to support the affected countries in West Africa, “it will be impossible to get this disease quickly under control, and the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever”.

Separately, Jan Eliasson, UN deputy secretary-general, said catching up with “the menacing exponential curve of the virus” demands a massive increase in financial resources, medical staff and equipment.

“I now appeal to all member states to act generously and swiftly,” he said. “Speed is of the essence.

“A contribution within days is more important than a larger contribution within weeks,” Eliasson said. — Aljazeera

 

Spanish king faces secessionist threat

Spain’s King Felipe VI begins a new reign on Thursday, already facing a threat to the unity of his kingdom as the north-eastern region of Catalonia fights to hold an independence referendum on November 9.

With only a ceremonial role in Spain’s parliamentary democracy, the new king, a tall 46-year-old former Olympic yachtsman, has limited capacity to mend all the woes of a country suffering high unemployment and long standing separatist tensions. Yet political analysts say he can help to soothe the bruised nationalist sentiments of the northern regions of Catalonia and the Basque Country, not least by fostering a dialogue with Madrid that is judged by many to be lacking.

In a speech on June 3, the day after his father Juan Carlos revealed he was abdicating, the future king gave a sign that he understood the scale of the challenge as secessionists in Catalonia, in particular, seek to redraw the map of Spain.

Felipe spoke of Spain as a “united and diverse” nation.

“Only by uniting our desires, putting the common good ahead of individual interests and promoting the initiative, curiosity and creativity of each person, can we manage to advance to better scenarios,” he said. Felipe’s speech was “an outstretched hand” to Spanish regions that have a distinct culture, said constitutional law professor Antonio Torres del Moral at the respected distance-learning university UNED.

On his deathbed, General Francisco Franco, who centralised power in Madrid, told Juan Carlos: “The only thing I ask of you, your highness, is that you preserve the unity of Spain.”

Under the 1978 constitution that ushered in Spain’s democracy after Franco’s death in 1975, the 17 regions were given broad autonomy.

Each region has its own education and health budget, government and parliament, court system, and in some cases police force. Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia speak their own languages.

During its transition from dictatorship to democracy, Spain chose a “coffee for everyone” model in which each region had largely similar rights, rejecting an alternative “cheeseboard” proposal in which each region would have selected its preferred model, said Torres del Moral.

Now, however, there is pressure for wider regional differences to be recognised, he said.

“We need to rethink the ‘coffee for everyone’ model and start helping ourselves to the cheeseboard,” the academic said. The Spanish constitution cites the “indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation” while guaranteeing the right to self-government of its “nationalities and regions”.

Yet Spain’s Constitutional Court ruled in 2010 that Catalonia’s revamped statute of autonomy, approved in a popular referendum, had to scrap references to Catalonia as a “nation”.

The ruling fired up nationalist sentiment in Catalonia.

Then, Catalan political leader Artur Mas, accusing Madrid of imposing an unfair tax burden on Catalonia at a time of economic crisis, promised to hold an independence referendum.

Hundreds of thousands of Catalans poured into the streets last September to demand a vote on independence from Spain. — BBC News.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vowed to block any such move, insisting it would flout the Spanish constitution. In the Basque Country, too, however, there are signs of a similar separatist sentiment albeit on a smaller scale. Organisers said some 100 000 people joined hands in a June 8 demonstration there to demand self-rule.

It is unclear what role Felipe could play. — BBC News.

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