The Sunday Mail
Nigeria to launch inquest into temple collapse
Nigeria said Friday that it will begin an inquest on October 13 into the cause of a church building collapse in Lagos that killed 115 people, including 84 South Africans. Lagos state justice commissioner Ade Ipaye said the coroner would seek to establish “the cause and manner” of the September 12 disaster at a guest house within the compound of the pastor T.B. Joshua. Since the collapse, concerns have mounted about the scope of an inquiry, including whether Nigeria’s well-documented culture of impunity for the rich and powerful would undermine a thorough investigation.
Joshua, who has thousands of followers in Nigeria and across the world, counts African heads of state among his flock. The justice commissioner said the inquest will begin with an open invitation to appear at Lagos High Court for anyone with relevant information about the tragedy. Joshua, a self-proclaimed miracle worker, has blamed the incident on sabotage and has vowed to rebuild the guesthouse at his Synagogue Church of All Nations. Some 350 South Africans were thought to be visiting the church at the time of the tragedy. Anger at the response to the disaster has been acute in South Africa, particularly over claims that lives could have been saved if church officials had not blocked access to rescue workers for three days. – AFP
SABC executives’golden handshakes costly
Taxpayers have had to pay close to R13 million for two former SABC executives’ golden handshakes when they left the embattled broadcaster.
The 2013/14 annual report of the SABC, tabled in South Africa’s parliament last week, revealed that former CEO Lulama Mokhobo was paid just over R8 million for 11 months of service. She resigned in February.
The amount included a basic salary of R5,3 million and R2,2 million for expenses and allowances.
Former executive Phil Molefe received a golden handshake of R4,8 million, which includes a basic salary of R3,5 million and R733 000 for travel and allowances. – SAPA
Libyan soldiers in fresh clashes with Islamist militants
At least 12 Libyan soldiers were killed and 45 wounded on Friday in fresh clashes with Islamist militants near the airport of the eastern city of Benghazi, a medic said.
Special army forces allied to brigades of former general Khalifa Haftar have been fighting Islamist brigades there, including Ansar al-Sharia, accused by Washington of killing the US ambassador to Libya in 2012.
On Thursday, Islamist groups launched a new offensive to seize the city’s military and civilian airport, the last government bases in the port city, amid the chaos gripping the oil producer three years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.
The Islamists have already overrun several army bases in Benghazi.
A hospital medic said 12 soldiers were killed and 45 wounded. On Thursday 29 soldiers had already died, according to medics. Mohamed El Hejazi, a spokesman for Haftar, said the Islamist offensive on the Benina airport located outside the city had been stopped with the help of war planes and helicopters.
“They tried taking the airport, but we won’t allow this,” he said.
The city was quiet by Friday evening, residents said. Western powers are concerned that Libya will become a failed state as a weak central government cannot control competing militia who helped oust Gaddafi but now use their weapons to dominate politics or a share of the country’s vast energy resources.
The elected parliament has relocated to the remote eastern city of Tobruk after effectively losing control of the capital Tripoli, where an alliance of armed groups hold sway. The new forces controlling Tripoli, led by brigades from the western city of Misrata, have helped install an alternative parliament and prime minister. – Reuters
Secret Service disarray fuels questions over Obama’s safety
When Secret Service officer Timothy McCarthy took a bullet to protect Ronald Reagan in a 1981 assassination attempt and agent Jerry Parr shoved the president into a limousine, their quick reflexes projected a Hollywood-style image of invincibility around the agency. Fast-forward to today: the 149-year-old Secret Service is struggling to emerge from a succession of scandals that have tarnished that iconic reputation, forced the abrupt resignation of its director and raised questions about its ability to fulfil its most critical duty: protecting President Barrack Obama and his family. Sources inside and outside the administration say many problems such as low morale, a leadership crisis and a culture of covering up mistakes can be traced back 11 years to when the Secret Service was pulled out of the Treasury Department and absorbed into the sprawling new Department of Homeland Security, where it had to compete for turf and money. – Reuters.
UN peacekeepers killed in Mali
Nine UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush Friday in Mali, a UN spokesman said. Their convoy was attacked near Menaka, in the country’s eastern Gao region, by heavily armed men on motorcycles, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the UN Stabilisation Mission in Mali. The nine dead were from Niger. The United Nations does not know who is responsible, Salgado said.
The attack was the deadliest yet of several against the forces in the country, the UN mission said on its Facebook page. Air assets were immediately deployed with the aim of making the area safe and helping the peacekeepers, the statement said. Arnauld Akodjenou, deputy special representative of the secretary-general in the UN mission, called for an end to violence. He said he was horrified by “this cowardly and hateful act of terrorism” and the loss of more lives in pursuit of peace in Mali, adding that these crimes must not go unpunished.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said such attacks constitute a violation of international law, and called on armed groups operating in the area of promises they have made to cooperate with the United Nations.
The latest attack comes a little more than two weeks after five UN peacekeepers from Chad were killed and three others injured when a UN vehicle struck a homemade bomb in northern Mali.
The September 18 attack took place on a road between Aguelhok and Tessalit, the UN mission said.
Other attacks have also killed or injured UN peacekeepers in the Kidal region. The UN mission is there to guard against militant Islamists who in early 2013 threatened to move on the West African nation’s capital, Bamako.
More than 8,000 military personnel and nearly 1,000 police were deployed under the peacekeeping mission as of the end of August. It was set up in April 2013 following a UN Security Council resolution. – CNN.
