[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Image copyright GG Rare protests broke out in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, with reports of shooting in the city on Tuesday.
Security forces responded by firing shots to disperse protesters, unverified video footage widely circulated on social media shows.
The protests were staged by students who were angered by government interference in the affairs of a community-funded Muslim school.
Information Minister Yemane Meskel downplayed reports of violence.
“Small demonstration by one school in Asmara dispersed without any causality hardly breaking news,” he said in a tweet.
However, the US embassy in Asmara said it had received reports of gunfire in “several locations” on Tuesday.
The authorities also appear to have cut the internet in the wake of the unrest, as no messages are being received from people in the country, the BBC Tigrinya service’s Tesfalem Araia says.
The protests were staged by students of Diae Al Islam, one of the best private schools in Asmara, following reports that its chairman, 90-year-old Hajj Musa Mohammed Nur, and other members of the school board were arrested after fiercely resisting government efforts to regulate the school.
According to a video circulating on social media that appears to show Mr Musa speaking before his arrest, he said that the authorities had demanded that the school, which offers both secular and Islamic education, drop religious teachings, ban the hijab and stop the separation of sexes.
The military has reportedly rounded-up of young men overnight, especially in the Akhria area of the city, where the school is located.
Anti-government demonstrations in Eritrea are extremely rare because of restrictions imposed by President Isaias Afwerki’s government, which has been in power for 26 years.
Eritrea does not have a constitution that guarantees the rights of citizens, including the right to protest.
The UN Human Rights Commission accuses the Eritrean government of committing human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
It strongly denies the allegations, and insists that it treats its citizens well.
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Image copyright Libyan Interior Ministry The brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi faces arrest in the UK after prosecutors asked for him to be extradited from Libya.
Hashem Abedi was arrested in the country shortly after the suicide attack that killed 22 people.
The Libyan authorities are considering the UK’s formal request, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.
Police also revealed 512 people are now known to have been injured in the blast at an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May.
What we know about Manchester bomber Salman Abedi
Both brothers travelled to Libya in April, before Salman returned alone, carrying out the attack.
Hashem Abedi is understood to be currently held by a militia group in Libya.
GMP said it had “applied for and been granted a warrant for the arrest of Hashem Abedi”.
The arrest warrant relates to the “murder of 22 people, the attempted murder of others who were injured and conspiracy to cause an explosion,” police said.
The then 20-year-old was arrested in Tripoli by members of the Rada Special Deterrence Force a day after the attack.
The North West Counter Terrorism Unit applied for the warrant at Westminster Magistrates’ Court within the last two weeks, GMP said.
The force said it was “grateful” to the Libyan authorities for considering the extradition request.
Those who were injured suffered both physical and psychological injuries, a GMP spokeswoman said.
A total of 112 people needed hospital treatment after the attack, with 64 suffering “very serious” injuries.
Physical injuries include paralysis, loss of limbs, internal injuries and very serious facial injuries. Many have had complicated plastic surgery.
Two people remain in hospital more than five months later.
The force also revealed that:
The investigation into the UK’s worst terrorist atrocity since the 7 July 2005 attacks on the London transport system is “still running a very fast pace” with 100 officers working on it full time, GMP said.
Previously, GMP said Salman Abedi built the device packed with nuts and bolts alone.
Detectives are still looking for a blue suitcase that he was seen using in the days before the attack.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he was “encouraged” by the development but said “there may well be further challenges ahead”.
Security Minister Ben Wallace said: “We have been clear from the outset that we are determined to do everything in our power to ensure that those suspected of being responsible for the Manchester attack are brought to justice in the UK.
“That is why the Home Secretary agreed to request the extradition of Hashem Abedi, who has been named as a suspect by Greater Manchester Police, and we continue to work closely with the CPS, police and Libyan authorities to return him to the UK.
“This was a callous and evil act and the victims and their families deserve and demand justice. They must remain our priority and we will therefore not be commenting further so as not to jeopardise the investigation.”
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
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The main suspect in the New York truck rampage that killed eight people on Tuesday has told investigators he began planning the attack a year ago.
Sayfullo Saipov, 29, said he intended to kill as many people as possible and “felt good” about the Halloween attack.
The Uzbek immigrant, who faces federal terrorism charges, says he was inspired by so-called Islamic State. He was shot and injured by police at the scene.
US President Donald Trump tweeted that he should receive the death penalty.
The charges filed against Mr Saipov are federal, which means the government can override New York state’s ban on capital punishment.
What did the suspect say?
Mr Saipov appeared in court in a wheelchair 24 hours after mowing down cyclists and pedestrians on a bike lane in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.
Six people died at the scene and two more in hospital. Twelve people were injured, four of whom remain in critical condition.
Prosecutors say Mr Saipov spoke freely to them, waiving his right to avoid self-incrimination while in custody.
According to federal court papers, he said:
Mr Saipov was charged with one count of providing material support and resources to IS and another count of violence and destruction of motor vehicles.
New York Police’s Deputy Commissioner John Miller said the suspect appeared “to have followed almost exactly to a ‘T'” IS instructions on how to carry out such an attack.
The FBI says they have located a second Uzbek man, 32-year-old Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, who was wanted for questioning in connection with the attack.
Sayfullo Saipov had reportedly lived in Tampa, Florida, before moving to Paterson, New Jersey.
He arrived in America from Uzbekistan in 2010 and is a legal resident of the country. Uber confirmed he had been working as a driver for them.
CBS News quotes an intelligence source as saying he was known to US authorities after his name was associated with the subjects of FBI counter-terrorism investigations in 2015.
The source says he had some contact with individuals who were considered radicalised extremists, at least one of whom was Uzbek. It is unclear whether those being investigated were in the US or overseas.
It is not known if Mr Saipov, who was not the main focus of the investigation, was interviewed at that time by the FBI.
New York has increased the police presence at key transport hubs, and there will be additional uniformed and plain-clothes police on duty at Sunday’s New York Marathon.
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President Trump said he was taking steps to end the diversity lottery programme – the immigration system under which the suspect entered the country.
He also attacked the US justice system, and said he would consider sending the suspect to the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The administration says it has not ruled out adding Uzbekistan to a list of countries in the president’s proposed travel ban.
The mayor of New York City and the governor of New York state have both praised the resilience of New Yorkers – and urged people not to “politicise” a tragedy that took eight lives.
Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio also suggested New York’s strict gun control laws had ensured that high-powered weapons could not get into the hands of terrorists.
The attacker rented the truck from a New Jersey branch of retailer Home Depot on Tuesday afternoon before driving to New York City and entering the bike lane, police said.
Video cameras show the van driving at very high speed, appearing to target bike riders and pedestrians.
After the van collided with a school bus, the van driver emerged and brandished what appeared to be two weapons.
Mr Saipov was shot and wounded at the scene by an NYPD officer who was alerted to the attack by witnesses.
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Knives, a paint gun and a pellet gun were recovered from the scene.
It was the deadliest terror attack in the city since the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.
A group of five Argentine friends celebrating the 30th anniversary of their college graduation were among the dead.
The men – all aged 48 or 49 – were named as Hernán Diego Mendoza, Diego Enrique Angelini, Alejandro Damián Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferrucci.
Belgian officials said Anne-Laure Decadt, a 31-year-old from Staden in Flanders, was also killed. Three Belgians were wounded.
Two other victims, both Americans, have been identified as Darren Drake, 32, and Nicholas Cleves, 23.
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Image copyright Reuters Three people have died after a shooting in a supermarket in suburban Colorado.
A gunman “nonchalantly” walked into a Walmart supermarket and opened fire, killing three, police say.
Two men died at the scene of the shooting and a wounded woman was taken to a hospital where she died.
Police say that the gunman “randomly” opened fire, before fleeing in a red four-door hatchback. He is still at large and police are trying to identify him with video footage.
The shooting occurred shortly after 18:00 local time on Wednesday (midnight GMT) in a suburban Walmart supermarket in Thornton, 10 miles (16km) north-east of the state capital of Denver.
Thornton Police Department spokesman Victor Aliva said there was no indication as to motive at this stage.
“We can’t rule anything out,” he said. “What we have determined is that it is random as of right now,” Mr Aliva said, according to Reuters news agency.
Aaron Stephens, 44, of Thornton, said he was inside paying at a self-checkout till when he heard gunshots and the sound of ricocheting bullets.
He recounted that “the employees started screaming and the customers started screaming” as people began to flee the store. “I ran out, too, because I didn’t want to get shot.”
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The Houston Astros won their first World Series title by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in the decisive seventh game.
Astros centre fielder George Springer was presented with the series’ most valuable player award after becoming the first man to hit home runs in four successive World Series games, and only the third to hit five homers in the same Fall Classic.
Since the Houston area suffered heavy flooding after Hurricane Harvey this summer, the Astros players have worn a “Houston Strong” patch on their uniforms, while also helping with relief efforts.
“We wore that patch, we wore it proudly, and the people of Houston were never far from our minds,” said Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr.
Springer added: “Our fans have endured a lot, and we’re coming home champions.”
Shortstop Carlos Correa, who proposed to his girlfriend during celebrations on the pitch, also dedicated the win to those affected by Hurricane Maria in his native Puerto Rico.
“To be able to bring joy and happiness to their lives is special in this moment,” he said.
Dodgers starting pitcher Yu Darvish, who was racially abused by Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel in game three, struggled early on at Dodger Stadium and failed to make it through the second inning.
After Houston went 2-0 ahead in the first inning and Darvish’s opposite number McCullers Jr drove in a third, Springer’s two-run shot prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to lift his starter with the score 5-0.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers, who had the highest payroll and the best regular-season record in Major League Baseball this year, stranded eight baserunners in their first five innings.
After four scoreless innings from their ace Clayton Kershaw, pitching in relief on two days’ rest, the hosts rallied in the sixth as pinch-hitter Andre Ethier drove in a run.
However, Houston right-hander Charlie Morton kept the Dodgers quiet for the final three innings.
The Astros – in their 56th year in the majors – had appeared in only one previous World Series, when they were swept 4-0 by the Chicago White Sox in 2005.
The Dodgers have not won the World Series since 1988.
“It’s a tough one – we just didn’t get it done,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
“We went a little further than we did last year and I expect us to be in this same position next year.”
| World Series result: Dodgers 3-4 Astros | |
|---|---|
| Game 1: Dodgers 3-1 Astros | Game 5: Astros 13-12 Dodgers |
| Game 2: Dodgers 6-7 Astros | Game 6: Dodgers 3-1 Astros |
| Game 3: Astros 5-3 Dodgers | Game 7: Dodgers 1-5 Astros |
| Game 4: Astros 2-6 Dodgers | Home team listed first |
BBC Sport presenter Nick Marshall-McCormack in Los Angeles
For decades to come we will be talking about this baseball World Series as one of the best ever – a seven-game marathon of beautiful baseball between the two best teams from the regular season.
If that wasn’t enough to pull the heart strings, we also saw a marriage proposal as Carlos Correa popped the question to his girlfriend, Miss Texas Daniella Rodriguez.
While this victory won’t go close to fixing the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, it will give a massive boost to the city’s morale. Watching the tears of joy flow down fans’ faces at Dodger Stadium was just another indelible image of this baseball epic.
This has put Houston into the history books – a classic that went all the way to game seven and gave players and fans a rollercoaster ride of emotions they’ll never forget.
Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS
Image copyright Getty Images The green card lottery that President Donald Trump wants to end has for 22 years been a golden ticket for the proverbial huddled masses chasing the American Dream.
Every October, around 14 million would-be immigrants around the world apply for permanent legal US residency through the Diversity Visa Lottery.
The programme – known around the world as the green card lottery – has since 1995 granted visas to around one million people with no ties to the US.
The president attacked the programme following Tuesday’s deadly truck attack in Lower Manhattan, allegedly by an Uzbek immigrant who won a green card in 2010.
Mr Trump earlier this year backed a Republican congressional plan to scrap the green card lottery and replace it with a merit-based system.
The lottery programme awards 50,000 visas a year – and a path to US citizenship – to applicants typically underrepresented in American immigration.
The selection is random by computer and does not require the visa recipient to have sponsorship, employment or family in the US.
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Citizens of countries that have had 50,000 green cards awarded in the last five years – including the UK, Canada, Mexico, India and China – cannot apply.
The only other requirement is a high school education or a regional equivalent in the applicant’s country of origin.
Winners are also permitted to bring their spouses and young children, the so-called chain migration that President Trump also wants to end.
The State Department’s diversity green card lottery makes up a small proportion of the roughly one million green cards issued by the US per year.
Candidates must have a face-to-face interview with US immigration officials.
Applicants found to have any terrorism connections are ruled inadmissible.
Abdi and his Golden Ticket to the US
The visa lottery was introduced through the Immigration Act of 1990, and went into effect in 1995.
The drive for the programme stemmed from the late 1980s, when tens of thousands of undocumented Irish immigrants moved to the US.
According to CUNY Brooklyn College political scientist Anna Law, prominent Italian-American and Irish-American members of Congress lobbied for the measure.
The US lawmakers argued that “the ‘old-seed’ immigrant groups were being shut out by newer groups from Asia and Latin America”, says Professor Law.
It followed a 1965 immigration law that had aimed to do away with an existing quota system which heavily benefited white Europeans.
The 1965 legislation focused on skilled workers and family sponsorship visas.
But critics said it disproportionately favoured immigrants from such countries as Mexico, India, China and the Philippines.
The president himself does not have the authority to end the programme, and must rely on Congress to create new immigration laws.
Mr Trump has backed a conservative bill in the US Senate which aims to scrap the green card lottery, halve the number of immigrants to the US and cap the number of refugees.
The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (Raise) Act was introduced in February 2017, but has failed to attract the votes needed to pass the Senate, despite Mr Trump’s support.
Members of Congress have previously said that overhauling the nation’s immigration system is not a high priority, as they instead focus on fixing the healthcare system and overhauling the tax code.
US immigration proposals: What’s in the Raise Act?
The legislation was originally introduced to boost European immigration, but it has also resulted in higher rates of immigration, particularly from Africa.
Sub-Saharan immigrants are more likely than any other US migrant to have entered through the lottery programme, according to a study by Pew Research Center.
Citizens from countries that Mr Trump has proposed banning from travelling to the US have also entered through the lottery system.
In 2015, around 10,500 citizens from six of the Muslim-majority countries that the White House wants blacklisted were selected for the diversity visa lottery, according to the US State Department.
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By Juliana Katung
Kaduna (Nigeria) — Marriage is a covenant. Parents consider marriage a great event in their life time and strive to ensure the best opportunity for their children
To parents, marriage is not viewed as a loss, as their children are being separated from them, but a divine creation, which began from the time of Adam and Eve.
To negotiate marriage is to create a powerful covenant, and all kinds of secrets are excavated in order to ensure that trust is built into the solidarity between wife-givers and wife-takers. Though modernism has influenced the present society in various ways especially in the area of marriages..
The young couple, Longtong and Yakubu held their wedding amidst fun and fanfare as parents, friends, colleagues and well wishers gathered at the Chapel of Our Salvation Anglican Church, Kaduna Northwest Nigeria, to witness the Holy Matrimony between Longtong and Yakubu last Saturday 28th, October, 2017.
The ever smiling bride gorgeously dressed in her white wedding gown marched along side her father amidst a processional Hymn, from the Choir to the Alter to join the groom who had earlier taken his seat.
The couple were then joined in Holy Matrimony by a team of clergy men, led by Rt. Reverend Timothy Yahaya.
Joining the couple, Rev Yahaya advised them to always love and cherish each other. He cautioned them against taken their problems to a third party, stressing that it would be unhealthy for a successful marriage.
The Cleric reminded them that it was impossible for two people to be completely compatible.
The new couple thereafter walked into the reception ground accompanied by friends with dancing steps.
Parents of both the groom and the bride, Messrs Ayhok and Ibrahim also joyfully danced to the reception ground accompanied by their relatives, friends and well wishers to celebrate with their children.
Orange and blue were the dominant colours at the well attended wedding reception held at the church premise.
Members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kaduna State Council where the bride belongs, were in attendance to identify with their own Longtong Ibrahim, who tied the nuptial knots with her hearthrob, Yakubu Ayhok.
At the reception, the couple entertained the guests with dance steps, just as they performed their first marital duties of feeding each other.
Among the journalists spotted at the ceremony were veterans, Elder John Fwah and Joseph Edegbo, the Managing Editor of AFRICA PRIME NEWS, as well as the Chairperson, National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) Kaduna State, Mrs. Juliet Oyoyo who was one of the Ladies in waiting.
Others are, the Bride’s Boss, Mr. Iliya Kure, Publisher of AFRICA PRIME NEWS, Online Editor New Nigerian Newspapers, Jacob Onjewu Dickson, AZ News Publisher, Abdulwahab Adubi, Peoples TV Correspondents, Silas Adamu, and Amina Anebi, Onmax Tv Reporter, Tega Nwaiwu, This Day Correspondent, John Shiklam, Peoples Daily Correspondent, Mohammad Ibrahim, New Nigerian Newspapers Reporter and Alex Uangbaoje.
