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DBliss Post at December 06, 2017 0
DBliss Post World
Emefiele  

 By Babajide Komolafe | Vanguard News

Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday, disclosed that the nation’s external reserves have risen to $38.2 billion, the highest in 39 months.

Emefiele disclosed this in Agbara, Ogun State while commissioning Unilever Plc’s 10,000 metric tonnes Blue Band factory. Emefiele stated: “We have seen reserves move up from the $23 billion I talked about in October 2016, but as I speak today, external reserves are $38.2 billion.” Emefiele said that the Unilever plant was made possible by the foreign exchange restrictions placed on the 41 items. 

He said: “When the restriction of foreign exchange (forex) for the 41 items came on board about two years ago; before that time, Unilever had a factory producing Blue Band margarine. But margarine was also part of the 41 items. The Managing Director and the executive team of Unilever Nigeria visited me in Abuja and said they wanted us to grant them some form of forbearance.

I said there was not going to be any forbearance, but that if he promised to re-establish the factory in Nigeria because as at that time their factory had been dismantled in Nigeria and taken to another country.

“And he (Unilever managing director) made a promise that between 12 to 18 months the factory would be re-established in Nigeria. Based on that, we granted them some form of forbearance that made it easy for them to import margarine into Nigeria, but we kept monitoring them and we were discussing. 

“The entire essence is to say that by re-establishing that factory here in Nigeria, he has created direct jobs for Nigerians in this factory. He created indirect jobs for Nigerians by virtue of the fact that he buys palm oil which is part of the formulation that he uses in producing margarine.” What does it take produce margarine? It is mixing oil and water. By creating indirect jobs by buying from people producing oil in Nigeria, he feeds millions of people.

 “That is the entire idea. I keep saying we do not have foreign exchange to allocate to import products that can be produced in Nigeria. I am happy that Unilever has proved us right that Blue Band margarine can be produced in this country. So far they are doing about 10,000 metric tonnes per annum and he has promised that he is going to ramp it up to 50,000 metric tonnes. By doing so you create jobs, which is what we are talking about. By creating jobs, you save the country forex that is needed to create jobs.”
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at December 06, 2017 0
DBliss Post Sport
Russia's ice hockey forward Ilya Kovalchuk has told TASS news agency that he believes Russian athletes should go to the Olympics. (AFP/File / Alexander NEMENOV)

Russia on Wednesday reacted with disappointment but no great surprise after the country was banned from the Winter Olympic Games, while President Vladimir Putin was yet to comment on a possible boycott.

Russia was banned Tuesday from the 2018 Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee over its state-orchestrated doping programme, but clean Russian athletes will be allowed to compete under an Olympic flag.

Putin was set to make a speech in Moscow later Wednesday in which he was expected to give his view on the International Olympic Committee's decision. So far the Kremlin has not commented.

The head of Russia's Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, told the IOC on Tuesday that punishing clean athletes was "unjust and immoral".

Russian media expressed regret at the decision while welcoming the possibility of some athletes participating, albeit under tight restrictions.

"It's very hard to take accusations and punishments. But the fate of our athletes and preserving our place in the Olympic family is more important," wrote the Sport Express daily.

"Can't get by without Russia," the pro-Kremlin Izvestia daily headlined its front page, stressing that "Russian Olympic athletes will defend the honour of the Motherland under any banner."

"Will Russia be at the Olympics but without a flag?" Sport Express newspaper headlined its front page, calling the decision "unprecedented".

It slammed the IOC decision as "very harsh and in some ways even humiliating for Russia," citing the life bans on attending the games for ex-sports minister Vitaly Mutko, now first deputy prime minister.

Nevertheless the IOC President Thomas Bach "left the door open for Russia" by allowing athletes to participate in some form, even with the word "Russia" on their uniforms, the newspaper wrote.

Some top sports figures agreed, with ice hockey forward Ilya Kovalchuk telling TASS state news agency: "We must go to the Olympics. Refusing is surrender."

Pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva told TASS: "Addressing our athletes, I want to say that they should absolutely not despair and should continue training for the games."

Pro-Kremlin media focused on discrediting Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistleblower who gave evidence of a state-controlled doping programme in which he played a central role.

Rodchenkov has been living in hiding in the United States since lifting the lid on the intricate workings of the state-supported scheme to cheat athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

"Grigory Rodchenkov is the perfect traitor," wrote tabloid daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

It said the IOC's actions proved that "you can destroy a whole Olympic country on the basis of indirect evidence and a single witness who was under a criminal investigation and has been treated in a psychiatric hospital."
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AFP at December 06, 2017 0
DBliss Post World
US President Donald Trump, seen here visiting the Western Wall, had pledged to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital (AFP/File / MANDEL NGAN)

President Donald Trump will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital Wednesday, upending decades of careful US policy and ignoring dire warnings of a historic misstep that could trigger a surge of violence in the Middle East.

A senior administration official said Trump would make the announcement -- ignoring frantic warnings from US allies in the region and around the world -- at 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) from the White House.

"He will say that the United States government recognizes that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"He views this as a recognition of reality, both historic reality," the source added, "and modern reality."

Plunging further into a decades-long dispute over a city considered holy by Jews, Muslims and Christians, Trump will also order to begin planning to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

"It will take some time to find a site, to address security concerns, design a new facility, fund a new facility and build it," the official said, indicating that the move would not be immediate.

"It will be a matter of some years, it won't be months, it's going to take time."

The status of Jerusalem is a critical issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with both sides claiming the city as their capital.

In a frantic series of calls, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the European Union, France, Germany and Turkey all warned Trump against the move.

Anticipating protests, US government officials and their families have been ordered to avoid Jerusalem's Old City and the West Bank.

Trump's move comes close to fulfilling a campaign promise, and will delight his political donors and the conservative and evangelical base so vital for the embattled president.

- 'Red line' -

Most of the international community does not formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, insisting the issue can only be resolved in final status negotiations.

US officials talk of "threading the needle" -- fulfilling Trump's campaign pledge, while keeping the peace process on the rails.

The White House argues that such a move would not prejudge final talks and would represent the reality that west Jerusalem is and will continue to be part of Israel under any settlement.

"President Trump remains committed to achieving a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians and is optimistic that peace can be achieved," a second official said.

Trump "is prepared to support a two State solution... If agreed to by the two parties."

Critics say Trump's approach is more like "splitting the baby" and could also extinguish his own much-vaunted efforts to broker Middle East peace while igniting the flames of conflict in a region already reeling from crises in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Qatar.

The armed Islamist Hamas movement has threatened to launch a new "intifada" or uprising.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman warned his close ally that moving the US embassy was a "dangerous step" that could rile Muslims around the world.

"Mr Trump! Jerusalem is a red line for Muslims," Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a raucous televised speech on Tuesday, echoing alarm expressed by Palestinian and Arab leaders.

The move already impacted the stock market in far away Japan, which closed down nearly two percent Wednesday in part over concerns on the fate of Jerusalem.

The issue could be "an unsettling factor to the global order," said Makoto Sengoku, market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Centre.

- 'Embassy Act' -

Israel seized the largely-Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, claiming both sides of the city as its "eternal and undivided capital."

But the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state and fiercely oppose any Israeli attempt to extend sovereignty there.

Trump was pushed to act on the embassy as a result of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which stated that the city "should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel" and that the US embassy should be moved there.

An inbuilt waiver has been repeatedly invoked by successive US presidents, postponing the move on grounds of "national security" once every six months, meaning the law has never taken effect.

Several peace plans have unravelled in the past decades over the issue of how to divide sovereignty or oversee sites in Jerusalem, with questions over the status of the city repeatedly sparking anger on both sides of the conflict.
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AFP at December 06, 2017 1
Police patrol near Oxford street as they respond to an incident in central London in November (AFP/File / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)

Two men have been charged with a plot to kill British Prime Minister Theresa May and a court hearing on the case is expected on Wednesday, British media reported.

Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, planned to blow up security barriers outside May's Downing Street office and then stab the British leader to death, the reports said.

The reports came a day after Home Secretary Amber Rudd told parliament that 22 Islamist terror plots had been thwarted since the killing of a British soldier on a London street by two Islamist extremists in 2013.

Nine of the plots have been uncovered following an attack outside the British parliament in March in which five people were killed, Rudd said.

"The UK is facing an intense threat from terrorism, one which is multi-dimensional, evolving rapidly and operating at a scale and pace we have not seen before," London's Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.

The police said there were now 500 counter-terrorism investigations involving 3,000 people and more than 20,000 other people have been investigated in the past.

Britain has seen five terror attacks this year, which killed 36 people and injured more than 200 others. Four of them were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Three of the perpetrators were known to security services, according to an internal review which said opportunities to stop the Manchester Arena bombing attack were missed by security services.
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DBliss Post at December 05, 2017 0
DBliss Post Opinion


 By Michael Goodwin | Fox News

Not many years ago, an ad for a newspaper warned that, “If you miss a day, you miss a lot.”

Now you don’t need a day to miss a lot. Mere seconds of ­inattention can get you behind the curve. What, you didn’t hear about the latest predator to fall on his sword?

The gusher of startling events puts us neck deep in the curse of interesting times. We are in the midst of cultural reckoning over sex, could be on the brink of nuclear war with North Korea and may experience an economic boom as Congress moves closer to historic tax reform.

Then there’s the White House, where the dynamics of upheaval are entering a crucial phase. Although many deplorables believe they finally have a government looking out for them, much of Washington and the American left are preparing to dance on the grave of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Their celebration got an early start Friday with the guilty plea of Gen. Michael Flynn and his pledge to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller. The news persuaded James Comey, the insufferably self-righteous former FBI boss, and the Democratic media that the clock is ticking on Trump’s time in the Oval Office.

That is one way to look at Flynn — if you assume he has beans to spill. He was close to Trump but it’s worth noting that Flynn pled guilty to a single count of lying to the FBI, including about a phone conversation he had with a Russian official last Dec. 29 — seven weeks after the election.

That’s the same call that got Flynn fired after less than a month as Trump’s national security adviser because he lied to the vice president about whether the conversation covered sanctions.

So it’s clear that Flynn is a serial liar, but decidedly unclear whether he knows anything that would put Trump in jeopardy. It’s important that the content of his conversations with Russians are not the ­basis of his admitted crime and do not appear to be illegal.

“No collusion,” Trump said Saturday. “There was absolutely no collusion. So we are very happy.”

Happy seems a stretch, but it is a fact that the probe into whether Trump’s campaign worked with Russia to alter the election has found zero evidence so far. Four Trump associates have been charged, but no count relates ­directly to the probe’s original purpose.  Read More
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AFP at December 05, 2017 0
DBliss Post World
AFP / JOHN THYS


British Prime Minister Theresa May scrambled Tuesday to salvage a deal over the post-Brexit border in Ireland after it was rejected by her DUP allies, exposing the weakness of her position in EU negotiations.

May was expected to hold talks with Northern Ireland's small Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which keeps her Conservative minority government in office, after it blocked agreement on a major issue holding up Brexit talks.

Sources said Britain had agreed to keep EU trade rules for British-controlled Northern Ireland, even if the country as a whole withdrew from the European single market and customs union.

This followed a demand from Dublin for guarantees that Brexit would not lead to the return of frontier checks, amid fears of inflaming sectarian tensions in a region plagued by violence in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

But as May sought to close the deal over lunch with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Monday, the DUP made clear that any special deal for Northern Ireland was unacceptable.

"As I understand it, the DUP were spoken to about the proposal but the precise wording it seems was not made clear," former British Brexit minister David Jones told BBC radio on Tuesday morning.

"Clearly the prime minister has got a lot of talking to do with (DUP leader) Arlene Foster today."

Ireland said it would not change the text agreed with the EU and London, but European affairs minister Helen McEntee told the state broadcaster RTE that "further clarification was needed".

May met her cabinet on Tuesday morning, and British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said the government was still "very confident" of reaching a deal.

He said that May would return to Brussels later this week for fresh talks.

The frenzied diplomacy caused the pound, which had rallied on Monday on hopes of a deal, to fall on the currency markets against the euro and the dollar.

- Special deal for 'entire UK' -

May's domestic critics seized on her failure to secure a deal on Ireland, one of three issues on which she must make progress if EU leaders are to agree to open trade talks with Britain at a summit next week.

"Each passing day provides further evidence that Theresa May's government is completely ill-equipped to negotiate a successful deal for our country," said main opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

A deal on Britain's financial settlement is largely agreed, although differences remain on the role of the European Court of Justice in securing the rights of EU citizens in Britain after Brexit, UK officials say.

However, failure to reach a deal on Ireland could hold up the entire process -- and if trade talks cannot start later this month, it makes it much harder for Britain to secure a trade deal before it leaves the EU in March 2019.

May cannot just ignore the DUP. She needs their 10 MPs to pass legislation through the House of Commons, after her Conservatives lost their majority in a June snap election.

"The fact that they managed to stall the negotiations yesterday I think demonstrates the precise strength of their position," Jones said.

Some Conservative MPs are also threatening trouble over a proposal that would effectively move the trade border from Ireland into the Irish Sea, jeopardising the territorial integrity of Britain.

"The government doesn't have a majority for that," leading Brexit supporter Jacob Rees-Mogg said.

One unnamed senior MP told The Times that if May went too far, "then we and the DUP will withdraw support and there could be a leadership change this side of Christmas".

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also weighed in on Tuesday, warning that while nobody wanted a hard border in Ireland, "jeopardising the UK's own internal market is in no-one's interest".

The leaders of Scotland, Wales and London have said they would seek special status for their own regions if it were granted to Northern Ireland.

Davidson, who opposed Brexit, went further, saying: "If regulatory alignment in a number of specific areas is the requirement for a frictionless border, then the prime minister should conclude this must be on a UK-wide basis."
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