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December  31

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Nelson Mandela death: South Africa marks first anniversary Events are being held across South Africa to mark one year since

Remembering an Icon

Record 33 Candidates Vying for Benin Presidency – Benin goes to the polls Sunday to choose a new president, and the ballot is long – a record 33 candidates. Incumbent Thomas Boni Yayi is stepping down after serving his maximum of two terms.

Record 33 Candidates Vying for Benin Presidency

Defence lawyers begin summing up Hissène Habré war crimes trial – The trial of Chad’s former president for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture has reached its last stage before the judges consider their verdict

Defence lawyers sums up in Hissène Habré war crimes trial

<h1>Nelson Mandela death: South Africa marks first anniversary</h1>Events are being held across South Africa to mark one year since the death of Nelson Mandela, including a wreath-laying ceremony and a cricket match.Anti-apartheid movement veterans joined Mr Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, at a remembrance service in Pretoria.Sirens and vuvuzelas sounded across the country before a commemorative three minutes’ silence was held.There was a worldwide outpouring of grief when South Africa’s first black president died a year ago aged 95.<blockquote>"The body gave in but Madiba’s spirit never, never changed, it was always the same until the end” - Graca Machel Nelson Mandela’s widow</blockquote>Mr Mandela, also known by his clan name of Madiba, spent 27 years in prison for fighting white-minority rule in South Africa.<h2>Legacy continues</h2>One of his granddaughters, Ndileka Mandela, told the BBC on Friday that South Africans were still upholding Mandela’s legacy and honouring his memory by living by his values of peace and reconciliation.“That’s just the spirit of who granddad was, that even after a year that he’s gone peace still prevails, people still upholding his legacy and what he stood for, because he stood for peace and reconciliation.”Many South Africans said they were reflecting on whether the nation is following in his footsteps, says the BBC’s Milton Nkosi in Johannesburg.Veteran liberation struggle hero Ahmed Kathrada addressed the remembrance service at the Union Buildings in the capital, Pretoria, on Friday morning.<div><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/threepsmars/image/upload/v1661714006/mmzjmk0ojy4y8fuyubg0.png" alt=" People gathered in Freedom Park at dawn to pray on the first anniversary of Mandela’s death"> People gathered in Freedom Park at dawn to pray on the first anniversary of Mandela’s death</div><div><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/threepsmars/image/upload/v1661714025/b4lk9vluzlh47igfuztw.png" alt="A candlelight service was held in the Soweto district of Johannesburg on Thursday evening"> A candlelight service was held in the Soweto district of Johannesburg on Thursday evening</div>He described Mandela as a democrat with a touch of autocratic rule.“The body gave in but Madiba’s spirit never, never changed, it was always the same until the end,” his widow, Graca Machel, said before laying a wreath at the base of the 9m (30 ft) tall bronze statue of her husband.She said it remained the responsibility of every person in the world to ensure his legacy lived on.Archbishop Desmond Tutu also paid tribute to the Nobel laureate, saying: “We thank God for him, and the example he gave us. He taught us about the worth of a human being, all human beings.”An interfaith service was held at Freedom Park in Pretoria earlier on Friday.Commemorations are taking place across the country, including at Mandela’s birthplace of Qunu where a marquee has been erected outside the Nelson Mandela Museum.The anti-apartheid icon was buried in his ancestral village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape 10 days after he died.Culled from BBC News 5 December 2014.

<div><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/threepsmars/image/upload/v1661993946/msrapvzwertcqftvptgt.png" alt=""> </div>Record 33 Candidates Vying for Benin Presidency – Benin goes to the polls Sunday to choose a new president, and the ballot is long – a record 33 candidates. Incumbent Thomas Boni Yayi is stepping down after serving his maximum of two terms.One front-runner among Benin’s nearly three dozen presidential candidates is current prime minister Lionel Zinsou, who helms a coalition of three political parties.It’s a distinct advantage, says regional political analyst and director of the Wathi think tank Gilles Yabi.He says Zinsou has the support of political parties that were considered to be in the opposition and he also has the support of the ruling party so that gives him a certain political weight.But Yabi thinks it’s still anyone’s race.He says it is a very open election and there are other candidates who could gather a large number of votes.Zinsou has faced criticism over his ties to France. The investment banker was born and raised there and has only recently returned to Benin. He was named prime minister last June.His top challengers include food industry magnate Sébastien Ajavon and cotton tycoon Patrice Talon. Talon broke with President Boni Yayi after he accused Talon of trying to poison him. Talon only returned to Benin last year following a presidential pardon.Analysts say the candidates have, for the most part, been raising the same top campaign issues like corruption, jobs and agricultural reform.If no candidate wins a clear majority Sunday, Benin will hold a run-off election two weeks later. Credit: Voice of America News <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/record-33-candidates-vying-for-benin-presidency/3217961.html" target="_blank">http://www.voanews.com/content/record-33-candidates-vying-for-benin-presidency/3217961.html</a>&nbsp;

Defence lawyers begin summing up Hissène Habré war crimes trial – The trial of Chad’s former president for war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture has reached its last stage before the judges consider their verdictLawyers representing the civil parties in the trial of former Chadian president Hissène Habré have begun summing up, the last stage in the landmark case before judges retire to consider their verdict.Habré, president of Chad from 1982-90, is standing trial on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture at a specially convened court, the extraordinary African chambers (EAC), in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. He’s accused of presiding over a network of secret police known as the Direction de la Documentation et de la Sécurité (DDS) and giving direct orders for torture and punishment. A 1990s human rights report from Chad documented hundreds of cases of human rights abuses and estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 victims. Habré denies the charges against him, and his defence lawyers have suggested he was unaware of the abuses.In an impassioned speech, Philippe Houssine, lawyer for the Chadian state and representing the victims, reminded the court of the almost 100 witness testimonies heard from September to December 2015. He summarised a number of accounts including prison inmates summarily executed with other prisoners forced to dig their graves, as well the use of the notorious stress position arbatachar (14 in Arabic), where victims had their hands and feet bound behind their back, often having the exhaust pipes of running car engines forced into their mouths.Houssine argued that the torturers “were sadists and carried out the abuse with pleasure” and went on to claim that any suggestion Habré had been unaware of what was happening was ridiculous as he had personally created the DDS. He added that one of the most feared torturers, Mahamat Djibrine, known as “El Djonto” (himself in prison in Chad), claimed in evidence to a Chadian enquiry that Habré had given the orders. Several witnesses said Habré had been present while torture was carried out, and that he had extinguished cigarette butts on the skin of onlookers.The news that rape and sexual slavery will not be included on the list of charges against Habré has been greeted with disappointment by a team of international lawyers who sent an “amicus brief” (pdf) to the court in December asking for the charges to be revised. The submission of the brief followed extraordinary testimony by women, one of whom stood opposite Habré in the Senegalese courtroom and accused him of raping her. The presiding judge, Gberdao Gustave Kam, declined to formally accept the brief into the record; however it was used by the lawyers for the civil parties.“We are glad at least that it seems our submission will influence the court’s work indirectly,” said Kim Thuy Seelinger, director of the sexual violence programme at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the team that drew up the brief.The Habré case is the first time the leader of one African country has been tried by the courts of another, using the principle of universal jurisdiction. The EAC was set up following a remarkable 25-year campaign for justice by victims’ groups which had even seen efforts to get the case heard in Belgium. Habré, who fled to Senegal in exile when he was toppled in a coup in 1990, enjoyed de facto protection under former president Abdoulaye Wade. However when Macky Sall was elected in 2012 he vowed to put an end to the impasse and the African Union was able to establish the EAC under the existing Senegalese justice system.Habré has refused to speak or cooperate with the EAC since it began its work in July. He rejects the court’s authority and is being represented by a court-appointed defence team after dismissing his own lawyers. Closing arguments from the civil parties are expected to last two days, and will be followed later this week by the prosecutor general, and then the defence if they choose to speak. A verdict is expected in May. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/feb/08/hissene-habre-war-crimes-trial-defence-lawyers-begin-summing-up" target="_blank">Read more (Courtesy: theguardian.com)</a>&nbsp;

December 31

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Remembering an Icon

Record 33 Candidates Vying for Benin Presidency

Defence lawyers sums up in Hissène Habré war crimes trial