Latin America Rising > Good News and Bad News for Guyana as Elections Approach

 

Guyana faces elections amid oil boom, Maduro's threats

By Macarena Hermosilla

   

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has intensified his rhetoric over a long-standing territorial claim to the Essequibo, a region that makes up more than 60% of Guyana’s territory. File Photo by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- With less than three weeks before Guyana's general elections Sept. 1, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has intensified his rhetoric over a long-standing territorial claim to the Essequibo, a region that makes up more than 60% of Guyana's territory and that Caracas claims as its own.

The region bordered by Venezuela on the west, Brazil on the southwest and the Atlantic Ocean on the north: It contains dense rainforests, highlands, savannas and low coastal plains.

In his weekly address Tuesday, Maduro said Venezuela "will recover the Essequibo sooner rather than later," a statement that heightens diplomatic tensions at a sensitive moment for the English-speaking nation, which is preparing to elect a new parliament and president amid an unprecedented oil boom and growing regional polarization.

"No matter what ExxonMobil, imperialism or the International Court of Justice do, the Essequibo is and will be Venezuela's," the Venezuelan president said, firmly rejecting any ruling from the Hague-based court.

While such remarks are not new in Venezuela's official rhetoric, they come as Guyana gains international prominence thanks to the rapid development of its oil industry in the offshore area adjacent to the Essequibo.

Major companies such as ExxonMobil, Hess and CNOOC operate there under concessions challenged by Caracas.

Guyana President Irfaan Ali, seeking re-election with the People's Progressive Party/Civic, has avoided direct confrontations with Venezuela, but has firmly defended Guyanese territory before the international community.

The country has brought the dispute before the international court since 2018 and has reiterated its willingness to accept the court's ruling as binding.

The case is moving forward in The Hague, with hearings held in April. Venezuela continues to reject the court's jurisdiction, while Guyana's government has received diplomatic backing from Caribbean nations, the Commonwealth, the United States and the Organization of American States.

"The sovereignty of the Essequibo is not at stake. Guyana is committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said recently.

Analysts say the Venezuelan government may be using the territorial claim for electoral purposes as it faces international sanctions and the recent U.S. announcement of a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accused him of working with criminal organizations, calling him one of the world's most dangerous drug traffickers and a threat to U.S. national security.

By contrast, for Guyana, defending the Essequibo is a matter of national unity. In 2023, after a consultative referendum promoted by Maduro -- in which Venezuelans backed creating a state called "Guayana Esequiba" -- the Guyanese government strengthened its diplomatic strategy and stepped up its appeals at the United Nations.

Guyana's political climate remains tense but stable, with seven parties registering candidates for the elections. The vote will be monitored by missions from the European Union, the Caribbean Community, or Caricom, and the Carter Center, which already has personnel deployed across the country.

The Essequibo has not dominated the campaign debates, which are focused instead on economic development, equitable access to oil revenues and the fight against corruption.

Guyana is undergoing an unprecedented economic transformation, driven by a surge in oil production. In 2024, the economy grew 43.6%, with the oil sector expanding 57.7% and the non-oil sector 13.1%.

The International Monetary Fund projects average annual growth of 14% over the next five years, supported by stronger infrastructure and higher productivity, with non-oil GDP expected to grow about 6.75%.

On the oil front, Guyana has begun production from its fourth floating production, storage and offloading unit, boosting capacity to more than 900,000 barrels per day -- already surpassing Venezuela's current output -- with a goal of reaching between 1.3 million barrels by 2027 and up to 1.7 million by 2030.

Read More

• Border disputes persist in Latin America
• Latin America's 2025 growth forecast rises slightly
• Foreign investment in Latin America, Caribbean rises in 2024

Corruption is Everywhere > But Gabon is trying to rise above it; Lukashenko tells Belarusian politicians to support their own mistresses

 

Gabon votes in first presidential election since coup ended 

55-year Bongo dynasty

Africa

Gabon voted on Saturday for its first elected leader since a 2023 coup overthrew the Bongo dynasty, which had ruled Gabon for more than 55 years. The Bongo family has been accused of looting the wealth of a nation where a third of its 2.3 million people live in poverty despite the nation's vast oil resources.

Issued on: 12/04/2025 - 07:19Modified: 12/04/2025 - 22:33

2 min

By:

FRANCE 24

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FRANCE 24

Video by:

FRANCE 24

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FRANCE 24

Voters in Gabon headed to polling stations on Saturday in the first presidential election since a 2023 military coup ended a political dynasty that lasted for more than 50 years.

Some 920,000 voters, including over 28,000 overseas, were registered to participate across more than 3,000 polling stations. After voting ended at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), the interior ministry said turnout had run to 87.12 percent.

It is a crucial election for the country’s 2.3 million people, a third of whom live in poverty despite its vast oil wealth.

The interim president, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, toppled President Ali Bongo Ondimba two years ago. He hopes to consolidate his grip on power for a new seven-year term in office, renewable once.

Nineteen months after overthrowing president Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for more 55 years, Nguema has pitched himself as a change agent cracking down on the corrupt old guard.

Nguema, 50, has criss-crossed Gabon in a baseball cap with the slogan, "We Build Together" during the campaign.

‘Votes delayed due to some logistical problems’

FRANCE 24's Marcel Amoko reports on Gabon's presidential election © FRANCE 24

He has been leading in opinion polls.

Polling stations opened at 7am (0600 GMT) and closed at 6pm (1700 GMT), with the result due on Sunday.

His main challenger is Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, who was serving as prime minister under Bongo before the August 2023 coup, the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.

A new constitution approved in November cleared the way for Nguema's candidacy.

Analysts say his status as the frontrunner comes from a sense that people were broadly happy with the coup and him being the most visible candidate during the campaign.

Nze's close ties to the old government – which was accused by critics of vote-rigging – also undermine his warning that Nguema poses a threat to Gabonese democracy, said Florence Bernault, a historian of Central Africa at Sciences Po.

"He doesn't seem to be very well placed to criticise," Bernault said.

 France 24

Power cuts

Gabon's economy grew by 2.9% in 2024, up from 2.4% in 2023, driven in part by infrastructure projects and increased production of commodities such as oil, manganese and timber, according to the World Bank.

But many voters told Reuters they were mostly concerned about basic services, citing power cuts that plague the capital.

"We talk about it every day. So this is a primary urgency because we don't want to have this anymore, these daily power cuts," said 40-year-old electrician Herve Regis Ossouami.

"I don't know a Gabonese person who would say they don't want water and electricity."

Lukashenko tells Belarus officials to

self-fund ‘mistresses’

State money allocated to support athletics must be spent properly, the country’s president has declared

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. ©  Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called for the exclusion of personal expenses from state funds earmarked for promoting sports. Instead, he has urged top government officials to fund their “mistresses” with their own money.

Speaking on Friday at a meeting focused on support for physical culture and sports organizations, the Belarusian leader told officials to report on various issues, including oversight of state funds allocated to national sports clubs and federations.

“I want to warn you, guys, it’s not hard these days to track how this money is being spent – and we will track it,” Lukashenko cautioned.

“But I want to say, man to man, that you should support your family, loved ones, mistresses, or anyone else with your own money. That will be the right thing to do – both humanely and manfully,” the president added, noting that officials can earn money wherever they want.

Lukashenko expressed hope that his comments would prompt officials to draw the right conclusions.

READ MORE: Half the world dreams of Belarus-style ‘dictatorship’ – Lukashenko

“The real question is: how fairly – and more importantly, how responsibly – are clubs managing these funds? Or are they just blindly using them? What exactly are the finances being spent on?” he asked.

Combating corruption was one a key theme of Lukashenko’s presidential campaign ahead of an election held in January. In early February, the Central Election Commission declared the 70-year-old politician the winner with 86.82% of the vote. None of the other candidates received more than 5%.

In December, upon appointing Ruslan Chernetsky as Minister of Culture, the Belarusian leader expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the country’s film industry.

“I just want to say man-to-man, Ruslan – you have no other choice: either die, or bring order to the sector,” Lukashenko said at the time.

A short video puts the Arab-Israeli conflict into perspective

 

LETTER IN YEMEN FROM 800 YEARS AGO

EXPOSES THE TRUTH ABOUT MUSLIMS

written by Leah Rosenberg November 30, 2023 2.5K views

This letter in Yemen written by the famous Jewish sage the Rambam reveals something about Muslims that the world refuses to admit.

I contend that the Arab-Israeli conflict began with Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was jealous of Isaac's favour from Abraham, and Ishmael's rejection. And, as the speaker says, that jealousy continues to this day as Israel flourishes without any significant oil and gas industry, while the only reason some Arab countries aren't desperately poor is because of the presence of oil. Also, several Arab countries have attacked tiny Israel several times and lost every time.

Arab's are bright enough to know that God blesses the Jews more than they, but are not bright enough to realize that it is because of there false religion.

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Are Russia and Iran doing an end-around American and European sanctions?

This is from Facebook with nothing in the way of documentation, but it's an interesting possibility.

However, The Economist is carrying the story here; and The Moscow Times reports it here.

It's not surprising that western news sources are largely ignoring it, it doesn't fit the acceptable narrative.

Russia and Iran have announced a new rail and shipping route that will wipe out all American and EU sanctions.

Russia and Iran are building a new transcontinental railway trade route that stretches from the eastern edge of Europe to the Indian Ocean, a 3,000-kilometer passage beyond the reach of any foreign intervention.

The two countries are spending billions of dollars to expedite river freight and Caspian Sea-connected railways. Dozens of Russian and Iranian ships – including some subject to sanctions – are already en route.

It's an example of how competition between big powers is rapidly reshaping trade networks in a global economy bracing to collapse in rival blocs.

Don't worry folks, Americans will blow it up like Nord Stream II

Canadian Convulsions > CSIS Covers up Trafficking Teens to Syria; Liberals Out-of-Touch - Rex Murphy

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CSIS persuaded Turkey to hide recruitment of operative

who trafficked teens to Islamic State

Globe and Mail, 

September 29, 2022

The most senior intelligence officer in charge of covert operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service went to Ankara in March, 2015, to persuade Turkish authorities to stay silent about the agency’s recruitment of a Syrian human smuggler who trafficked three British teenage girls to Islamic State militants, according to three sources.

The sources said the officer, Jeffrey Yaworski, who was at the time CSIS’s deputy director of operations, was carrying out a discreet but high-level campaign to prevent the spy agency from being publicly blamed for using the smuggler as an operative. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss national security matters.

One of the sources said Turkey eventually agreed to Mr. Yaworski’s request, but punished Canada by limiting the number of CSIS agents operating at the Canadian embassy in Ankara. CSIS also promised that any further clandestine activities in the country would be conducted as joint operations with Turkish intelligence, the source said.

The smuggler, Mohammed al-Rashed, was arrested by Turkish authorities on Feb. 28, 2015, within days of when he helped the girls cross the Turkish border into Syria. His capture threatened to place Canada at the centre of an international incident, after Turkish media reported that he had shared the girls’ passport details with CSIS, and that he had smuggled other British nationals seeking to join the Islamic State.

At the time of his arrest, Britain’s Scotland Yard had been frantically searching for the girls, and Turkey was unaware that CSIS had an Islamic State double agent operating in the country.

Turkey never publicly confirmed CSIS’s involvement with Mr. al-Rashed after Mr. Yaworski‘s travels to Ankara. The sources said he visited Turkey at least two times to meet senior Turkish officials in the aftermath of the operative’s arrest. One of the sources said Mr. Yaworski was trying to put the operational mess “back in the box.”

During the first visit, another source said, Mr. Yaworski apologized and asked the Turks to release Mr. al-Rashed, which Turkey declined to do because of the intense publicity in Britain about the missing girls. Turkey also did not want to be blamed for freeing an Islamic State human smuggler, since Ankara had been heavily criticized for failing to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Syria, the source said.

Mr. Yaworski declined to comment on his interaction with Turkish authorities, saying through an intermediary that he is bound by the secrecy provisions of the Security Information Act.

CSIS also declined to discuss the matter. “There are important limits to what CSIS can confirm or deny given the need to protect sensitive techniques, methods and sources of intelligence,” spokesperson Eric Balsam said in a statement.

Around the time Mr. Yaworski was holding secret talks with Turkish authorities, CSIS convinced British counterterrorism officials to cover up the agency’s role in the handling of Mr. al-Rashed. Those discussions were revealed in The Secret History of the Five Eyes, a new book by author Richard Kerbaj that recounts parts of Mr. al-Rashed’s story.

Mr. Kerbaj interviewed Richard Walton, the chief of Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism command, who said two CSIS officials came to see him shortly after the arrest of Mr. al-Rashed. They informed Mr. Walton that CSIS knew about the trafficking of the three teens and asked the British to obscure the spy agency’s role.

In his book, Mr. Kerbaj also wrote that CSIS sent an unidentified top official to Ankara to beg Turkey’s forgiveness for running a counterintelligence operation in their country. Mr. Kerbaj subsequently learned that the official was Mr. Yaworski, and that he had travelled to Turkey on at least two occasions after the arrest of Mr. al-Rashed. As deputy director of operations, Mr. Yaworski was responsible for all undercover missions, including recruitment and running of spies.

Mr. Kerbaj provided Mr. Yaworski’s name to The Globe and Mail last week, and the three sources later confirmed that he had travelled to Ankara.

The Globe has reported, citing a source with direct knowledge, that Mr. al-Rashed was freed on Aug. 5 after serving years in a Turkish prison on terrorism and smuggling charges, including for trafficking the three British girls, who were aged 15 and 16 at the time. The source said CSIS had planned to relocate him to Canada after his release. The government will not say if he has been granted asylum.

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Rex Murphy: The Liberals are so far out of touch

it probably can't be measured

Canadians need the Trudeau government to deal with the realities of

skyrocketing fuel, food and mortgage costs

Author of the article Rex Murphy

Publishing date: Oct 03, 2022 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a Countdown to COP15 leaders event about climate change in New York City on Sept. 20, 2022. Rex Murphy wishes the Liberals would concentrate their energies on such domestic issues as inflation, soaring fuel costs, lack of clean drinking water on First Nations and government inefficiency. PHOTO BY BRYAN R. SMITH / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The greatest and most characteristic failure of the Trudeau administration has been its war against the oil and gas industry. It was so-early signalled. There is, for example, this brilliant pat-on-his-own-back — a yoga twist Mr. Justin has perfectly mastered — from nine years ago:

“I am pleased to announce that we will keep our commitment to implement a moratorium on crude oil tanker shipping on British Columbia’s north coast.”

From out of that deep but callow mindset came the blocking of pipelines, the wretched, useless (and in this time of rampant inflation) insulting so-called “carbon taxes,” the supine genuflections to the international global warming extremists, the hobbling of a mighty natural resource, and latterly the incredible elevation of a one-time Greenpeace activist and tower-climber, Steven Guilbeault (name his other qualifications), to a ministry in a supposedly mature national government.

The second greatest failure is a corollary of the first, the disregard, perhaps reaching to contempt, for the interests of the Western provinces. It amounts to the prime minister establishing a two-tier Confederation.

I am very well aware that I have made this observation many times before, but that puts no halt on my restating it: If oil and gas were the principal industries of Ontario, or especially Quebec, a drawing of an oil pipeline, or better yet that of an oil barrel, would long ago have supplanted the maple leaf on the Canadian flag.

How ever did global warming become the principal policy and obsession of the government of this vast, cold, main northern nation? If Canada were one of those tiny islands that shoot out warnings that they will be submerged in the apocalypse-to-come, it might be understandable.

The Maldives, for example, have staged their worry on this point. They held a televised “underwater cabinet meeting” to “raise awareness” of global warming. They gurgled very impressively, air bubbles drifting upwards, but, note, they still have land-based governance.

Of the thousands of islands in the Maldives that are barely above sea level, none have disappeared yet.

But Canada? Here’s a raw question too rarely asked — what’s our concern in all this? Why is global warming the principal and sternest policy of a Canadian government? Can we change China, India, Russia by our example? Beyond the burnishing of Trudeau’s credentials as the most self-advertised woke politician, what is it all about? Is Canada a heat furnace? Does Newfoundland threaten the global thermostat?

With the Canadian press asking stern questions about “carbon emissions policy” and which party has the “best” one, will no one ask the essential question: What benefit to Canada flows from “carbon reduction” schemes? Why does the Canadian government embrace global warming as the principal theme of national governance? Most succinctly, will no one in the press gallery ask the prime minister this question: What does it matter what we do?

Are there not wells to clean, passport lineups to shorten, inflation to worry about, estrangement from the Confederation to address?

Next question: Why has an international agenda, supported by every liberal billionaire and dogmatist of the warming crusade, become the key, near genetic, policy of the Trudeau administration? As Hillary Clinton so famously asked, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

Can no one in the national press ask why it is important, or in any way consequential, or has any impact on any other government in the world, that Trudeau taxes Canadian gasoline and heating fuel in the “fight against global warming?”

Are there not wells to clean, passport lineups to shorten?

Why his personal and shallow preoccupations, and those of his ideologically driven mentor, Gerald Butts, are shaping the destiny of our nation? Canada is not a footnote to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It may be fine for cabinet ministers flying abroad, a PM with his private air accommodation, and MPs with solid salaries not to care about pump prices or the jump in food costs and mortgage payments, to ignore reality and stick with the global warming fixation. But it is not for most Canadians, and certainly not for the poorest of them, which should always be our care.

And equally to the point, now that the blizzard of scandals and missteps, the airport clogs, the passport shambles, the WE scandals and the summoning of the near wartime Emergencies Act, have precipitated a drastic fall in the polls and signalled the “horror” of “Trumpian” Pierre Poilievre in the ascendant, would it be possible for the Trudeau government to stop role-playing on the international stage and tend to the less glamorous business of keeping Canada secure and stable?

It's my contention that Trudeau has always considered the Prime Minister of Canada as being a stepping stone to something more grand and fitting to his ego.

The current administration is so far out of touch I am not sure a measurement for the distance is available.

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Corruption is Everywhere > Glencore Energy Fines $315mn; Canada Sanctions Haitian Senators

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Glencore ordered to pay $315 million penalty for bribery

By Patrick Hilsman

   

Pro-union demonstrators protest against Glencore in May 2018. Glencore on Thursday was ordered by

Britain to pay $315 million in penalties for a bribery scheme. File Photo by Alexandra Wey/EPA-EFE

Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Glencore Energy U.K. Ltd. has been ordered to pay approximately $315 million in fines after an investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office determined the company paid $29 million in bribes to gain access to oil in Africa.

How else would you gain access to oil, or anything else, in Africa?

Justice Fraser of the Southwark Crown Court said Glencore had created a corporate culture "in which bribery was accepted as part of the West Africa desk's way of doing business."

As much as I hate corruption, I seriously doubt that Glencore 'created the corporate culture' of bribery. I suspect it predated Glencore by centuries.

"This is a significant overall total. Other companies tempted to engage in similar corruption should be aware that similar sanctions lie ahead," Fraser said of the penalty.

After launching its investigation of Glencore in 2019 the SFO uncovered a series of text messages and concealed payments implicating the London-based West Africa Desk in bribery schemes.

The investigation discovered that Glencore was using local contacts to funnel bribes, disguised as service fees and signing bonuses, to state-affiliated oil companies and ministries in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

In 2015 two Glencore officials flew to South Sudan via private jet carrying $800,000 in cash bribes which had been withdrawn from the company's Swiss office under the pretext of being used to establish an office in the newly independent country.

"This has been a landmark case in U.K. anti-bribery enforcement, marking the first time since the introduction of the Bribery Act 2010 that a corporate has been convicted for the active authorization of bribery rather than purely a failure to prevent it," said Serious Fraud Office Director Lisa Osofsky.

"For years, and across the globe, Glencore pursued profits to the detriment of national governments in some of the poorest countries in the world. The company's ruthless greed and criminality have been rightfully exposed," Osofsky added.

If you think for a minute that colonial Britain and 19th century USA didn't employ similar methods and attitudes to rip off 3rd world peoples of their natural resources, you need your eyes opened.

Glencore has also been charged with bribery and market manipulation in the United States. A subsidiary has been ordered to pay $485.6 million to resolve market manipulation investigations.

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Canada sanctions two Haitian politicians suspected of enabling

'illegal activities'

Canada has announced sanctions against the President of Haiti's Senate Joseph Lambert, left,

and former senate president Youri Latortue, right. (Dieu Nalio Chery/The Associated Press)

Armed gangs have been blockading Haiti's main port since September

Darren Major · 

CBC News · 

Posted: Nov 04, 2022 2:49 PM ET |

The federal government has announced sanctions against two high-ranking Haitian politicians as the country grapples with multiple crises, including widespread civil unrest, food and fuel shortages and a resurgence of cholera.

On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada would sanction the President of Haiti's Senate Joseph Lambert and former senate president Youri Latortue.

"Canada has reason to believe these individuals are using their status as previous or current public office holders to protect and enable the illegal activities of armed criminal gangs, including through money laundering and other acts of corruption," a statement from Global Affairs Canada said.

The sanctions will freeze any asset holdings the two have in Canada, the statement said.

Do they actually have any asset holdings in Canada?

Canada already has backed a UN-led effort to sanction Haitian gang leaders — including former police officer Jimmy Chérizier, also known as "Barbecue," one of Haiti's most infamous gang leaders.

Protesters walk past burning tires during a protest to reject an international military force requested by the government,

and to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.

(Odelyn Joseph/Associated Press)

Armed gangs have been blockading Haiti's main port since September following a move by Ariel Henry, Haiti's unelected prime minister, to cut fuel subsidies. 

Gang violence has killed hundreds of civilians.

The country has been effectively leaderless for more than 15 months after the last president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated.

After overpowering an understaffed and under-resourced police department, the gangs have gone so far as to request seats in the governing cabinet, demanding that Henry's government grant amnesty and void arrest warrants against their members.

"Canada will not remain idle while gangs and those who support them terrorize Haiti's citizens," Joly said in Friday's statement.

Haiti's current leaders have called for foreign support to restore a semblance of stability to the chaotic country, and Henry has said he wants a "specialized armed force" to assist Haitian police in countering anti-government gangs.

Earlier this month, Canada delivered armoured and tactical vehicles to Port-au-Prince in an effort to support Haitian police locked in a conflict with armed gangs.

Last week, Joly met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ottawa. Both committed to doing more for the embattled island nation.

Beyond sanctions, it's not clear what the two countries have planned — but it could include some sort of intervention by police and military personnel.

The U.S. and its allies are assembling a coalition of willing nations to provide "contributions of personnel and equipment for a potential mission," Blinken said last week.

Blinken said any such intervention would be "very limited in scope, limited in time" and focused on propping up the Haitian national police, a body that has struggled to keep criminal gangs at bay in recent months.

According to the United Nations, nearly half of Haiti's 11 million people face acute hunger and 1.8 million are at risk of a food emergency. In Cité Soleil, a sprawling slum in the capital of Port-au-Prince, roughly 19,000 people face a food "catastrophe," the UN said.

Islam - Current Day > Girl's Schools closed on opening day - Afghanistan; Houthis hit Saudi Oil; Taliban blocks women from travelling alone; Muslim acid attack on converts

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Heartbreak as Afghan girls ordered home just hours

after schools reopen

AFP - Tuesday

The Taliban ordered girls' secondary schools in Afghanistan to shut on Wednesday just hours after they reopened, sparking heartbreak and confusion over the policy reversal by the hardline Islamist group -- and international condemnation.

The U-turn was announced after thousands of girls resumed lessons for the first time since August, when the Taliban seized control of the country and imposed harsh restrictions on women.

The education ministry offered no clear explanation for the shift, even as officials held a ceremony in the capital Kabul to mark the start of the academic year, saying it was a matter for the country's leadership.

Girls had to leave their schools following the Taliban's order to close them

© Ahmad SAHEL ARMAN

"In Afghanistan, especially in the villages, the mindsets are not ready," spokesman Aziz Ahmad Rayan told reporters.

Villagers operating in the 14th century will never be ready for education. It is education that would bring the villages closer to modern times. But then, educated women are less likely to remain invisible in Muslim society.

Chart showing girls' secondary school enrollment in Afghanistan,

in comparison with Iran, India and Pakistan

© Laurence CHU

Wednesday's date for girls to resume school had been announced weeks earlier by the ministry, with spokesman Rayan saying the Taliban had a "responsibility to provide education and other facilities to our students".

"We have some cultural restrictions... but the main spokesmen of the Islamic Emirate will offer better clarifications."

A Taliban source told AFP the decision came after a meeting late Tuesday by senior officials in the southern city of Kandahar, the movement's de facto power centre and conservative spiritual heartland.

IMAGES: Girls resumed classes across much of Afghanistan Wednesday after Taliban authorities announced

the reopening of their secondary schools, more than seven months after seizing power and imposing

harsh restrictions on the rights of women to be educated.

They insisted that pupils aged 12 to 19 would be segregated -- even though most Afghan schools are already same-sex -- and operate according to Islamic principles.

Saudi airstrikes hit Yemen's Houthis after attack on oil depot

7 killed as targets struck in rebel-held cities of Sanaa and Hodeida

The Associated Press · 

Posted: Mar 26, 2022 7:32 AM ET 

A cloud of smoke rises from a burning oil depot in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked

the facility on Friday — their highest-profile assault yet that threatened to disrupt the upcoming grand prix in the city.

(Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press)

A Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen unleashed a barrage of airstrikes on the capital and a strategic Red Sea city, officials said Saturday. At least seven people were killed.

The overnight airstrikes on Sanaa and Hodeida — both held by the Houthis — came a day after the rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jeddah, their highest-profile assault yet on the kingdom.

Brig.-Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition, said the strikes targeted "sources of threat" to Saudi Arabia, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

He said the coalition intercepted and destroyed two explosives-laden drones early Saturday. He said the drones were launched from Houthi-held civilian oil facilities in Hodeida, urging civilians to stay away from oil facilities in the city.

Footage circulated online showed flames and plumes of smoke over Sanaa and Hodeida. Associated Press journalists in the Yemeni capital heard loud explosions that rattled residential buildings there.

Fuel supply station among targets

The Houthis said the coalition airstrikes hit a power plant, a fuel supply station and the state-run social insurance office in the capital.

A Houthi media office claimed an airstrike hit houses for guards of the social insurance office, killing at least seven people and wounding three others, including women and children.

Houthi rebels are seen in Sanaa, Yemen, in November 2021. (Hani Mohammed/The Associated Press)

The office shared images it said showed the aftermath of the airstrike. It showed wreckage in the courtyard of a social insurance office with the shattered windows of a nearby multiple-story building.

In Hodeida, the Houthi media office said the coalition hit oil facilities in violation of a 2018 cease-fire deal that ended months of fighting in Hodeida, which handles about 70% of Yemen's commercial and humanitarian imports. The strikes also hit the nearby Port Salif, also on the Red Sea.

Al-Malki, the coalition spokesperson, was not immediately available for comment on the Houthi claims.

The escalation is likely to complicate efforts by the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to reach a humanitarian truce during the holy month of Ramadan" in early April.

Smoke billows from a fire at Saudi Aramco's petroleum storage facility after an attack in Jeddah on Friday. (Reuters)

It comes as the Gulf Cooperation Council plans to host the warring sides for talks late this month. The Houthis however have rejected Riyadh — the Saudi capital where the GCC is headquartered — as a venue for talks, which are expected to include an array of Yemeni factions.

The Houthis also announced Saturday a unilateral initiative that included a three-day suspension of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, as well as fighting inside Yemen. They demanded an end to the coalition air and sea blockade on their territories before engaging in negotiations.

Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, doubted that ongoing efforts will succeed in bringing a peaceful settlement to the grinding war in the near future, given that international attention is now focusing on other crises including the war in Ukraine.

"I really wouldn't buy into any optimism we'll see diplomatic progress in 2022," he said. "It's pretty clear that all parties are still looking for ways to either win outright or cause significant damage to their rivals."

Yemen's brutal war erupted in 2014 after the Houthis seized Sanaa. Months later, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a devastating air campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government.

The conflict has in recent years become a regional proxy war that has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14.500 civilians. It also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

The Houthis' Friday attack came ahead of a Formula One race in the kingdom on Sunday, raising concerns about Saudi Arabia's ability to defend itself against the Iranian-backed rebels.

Jeddah hosting Formula One race

Friday's attack targeted the same fuel depot that the Houthis had attacked in recent days — the North Jeddah Bulk Plant that sits just southeast of the city's international airport and is a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca.

In Egypt, hundreds of passengers were stranded at Cairo International Airport after their Jeddah-bound flights were cancelled because of the Houthi attack, according to airport officials.

The kingdom's flagship carrier Saudia announced the cancelation of two flights on its website. The two had 456 passengers booked. A third cancelled flight with 146 passengers was operated by the low-cost Saudi airline Flynas.

Some passengers found seats on other Saudi Arabia-bound flights and others were booked into hotels close to the Cairo airport, according to Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because there were not authorized to brief media.

Taliban blocks dozens of women from taking flights out of Afghanistan

Women, including some bound for Canada, denied boarding

because they were travelling without male guardians

The Associated Press · 

Posted: Mar 26, 2022 10:12 AM ET

A photo from last November shows planes parked at the Kabul airport. Dozens of women were denied boarding on flights out of Kabul International Airport on Friday, because they were travelling without male guardians, two Afghan airline officials told The Associated Press. (Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images)

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some bound for Canada, because they were travelling without male guardians, two Afghan airline officials said Saturday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from the Taliban, said dozens of women who arrived at Kabul's international airport Friday to board domestic and international flights were told they couldn't do so without a male guardian.

Some of the women were dual nationals returning to their homes overseas, including some from Canada, according to one of the officials. Women were denied boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai and Turkey on Kam Air and the state-owned Ariana Airline, said the officials.

The order came from the Taliban leadership, said one official.

By Saturday, some women travelling alone were given permission to board an Ariana Airlines flight to western Herat province, the official said. However, by the time the permission was granted they had missed their flight, he said.

The airport's president and police chief, both from the Taliban movement and both Islamic clerics, were meeting Saturday with airline officials.

"They are trying to solve it," the official said.

Women already faced travel restrictions

It was still unclear whether the Taliban would exempt air travel from an order issued months ago requiring women travelling more than 72 kilometres to be accompanied by a male relative.

Taliban officials contacted by The Associated Press did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Since taking power last August, the Taliban leadership have been squabbling among themselves as they struggle to transition from war to governing. It has pit hard-liners — like acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, who is deeply rooted in the old guard — against the more pragmatic among them, like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He took over leadership of the powerful Haqqani network from his father Jalaluddin Haqanni. The elder Haqqani, who died several years ago, is from Akhund's generation, who ruled Afghanistan under the strict and unchallenged leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, like Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts since taking power.

This latest assault on women's rights in Taliban-run Afghanistan denying women air travel, comes just days after the all-male religiously driven government broke its promise to allow girls to return to school after the sixth grade.

The move enraged the international community, which has been reluctant to recognize the Taliban-run government since the Taliban swept into power last August, fearing they would revert to their harsh rule of the 1990s. The Taliban's refusal to open up education to all Afghan children also infuriated large swaths of the Afghan population. On Saturday, dozens of girls demonstrated in the Afghan capital demanding the right to go to school.

What a shame that Afghanistan is reverting more and more to strict Sharia. Girls, as usual, pay the price for Afghan men's madness.

Muslims spray acid on family for accepting Jesus:

‘You deserve death’

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Sunday, March 27, 2022

A church bell hangs from a tree branch outside a Catholic church and a school in Odek village, Uganda. |

REUTERS/JAMES AKENA

Radical Muslims in eastern Uganda sprayed acid on their family members during an argument over their conversion from Islam to Christianity and were told, “You deserve death.” The family survived but remain in the hospital where they're being treated for burns. 

Reports surfaced last week that Muslim relatives had sprayed acid on three new converts — Juma Waiswa, 38, his 32-year-old wife, Nasimu Naigaga, and their 13-year-old daughter, Amina Nagudi — in Intonko village of Namutumba District, to punish them for putting their faith in Christ, according to Morning Star News.

One of the victims, Waiswa, said they converted to Christianity when a pastor visited their home and shared the Gospel on Feb. 17. When the relatives came to know about their conversion, they called them for a meeting with other clan members on March 8, he said.

“During the meeting, we were asked about our salvation, and we affirmed to them that we had believed in Jesus and converted to Christianity,” Waiswa was quoted as saying. “They told us to renounce Jesus, but we stood by the newly founded faith in Jesus.”

He continued: “When we refused to recant our faith in Jesus, my father, Arajabu, recited some Quranic verses, and after that they forcefully started beating us with sticks as prescribed in the Quran, claiming that we were apostates. As this was not enough, my father went inside the room and picked up a bottle of acid and began spraying it on us while the group started shouting, ‘Allah Akbar [Allah is greater], you deserve death,’ and then disowned us.”

Amina Nagudi, 13, was sprayed with acid in Namutumba District, Uganda, on March 8, 2022. | Morning Star News

This girl needs a lot of prayer!

Please take a moment and pray for her right now.

The three victims didn’t realize initially that they had been sprayed with acid. “But as we were fleeing for our lives, we started feeling some serious itching that continued until the pain intensified,” Waiswa said. “A nearby Christian neighbor called the pastor, who arrived immediately and took us to hospital in Mbale, but our daughter was seriously affected and was referred to a hospital in Jinja.”

On March 9, their home was burned to the ground.

Four days later, in a separate incident, radical Muslim villagers attacked a former mosque leader, identified as Swaleh Mulongo of Bugobi village, for putting his faith in Christ after being evangelized by a pastor in January. 

“It was around 8 a.m. when four Muslims stopped me and began asking me so many questions regarding Christianity, but I did not respond,” Mulongo was quoted as saying. “Then the men started beating me up with blows and sticks, but thank God when they saw some people approaching, they fled away.”

Mulongo suffered deep head wounds and his wrist was broken.

The radical Muslims then killed goats and chickens that were owned by the pastor who had led Mulongo to Christ.

Acid can disfigure a victim for life and has been used in revenge attacks mostly by men and particularly in Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom and Uganda, for various reasons, from disloyalty to saying “no” to a romantic relationship, according to the London-based Acid Survivors Trust International.

Under Ugandan law, the assailant in an acid attack can be sentenced up to seven years in prison, but “perpetrators are rarely charged,” said Linnet Kirungi, founder and director of the nonprofit Hope Care Rescue Mission, according to Chimp Reports.

"Of the over 200 acid attack survivors with whom I have worked in Uganda, only 20 percent of their perpetrators were charged or had any legal consequences for perpetrating the attack,” she told the outlet.

While most people in Uganda are Christian, some Eastern and Central regions in the country have higher concentrations of Muslims.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project estimates that about 11.5% of Uganda’s population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Armed attacks and murders of converts are not uncommon in the region.

“Radical Islam’s influence has grown steadily, and many Christians within the majority-Muslim border regions are facing severe persecution, especially those who convert from Islam,” a Voice of the Martyrs factsheet notes.

“Despite the risks, Evangelical churches in Uganda have responded by reaching out to their neighbors; many churches are training leaders how to share the Gospel with Muslims and care for those who are persecuted after they become Christians.”