Zimbabwe: No way back for weakened Robert Mugabe

The 93-year-old is seen as a liberation leader among African nations, but he will not be able to recover from being shoved aside.
Mugabe

The 93-year-old is seen as a liberation leader among African nations, but he will not be able to recover from being shoved aside.

Wednesday 15 November 2017

Image:Robert Mugabe is believed to be under house arrest

Robert Mugabe's unchallenged rule over Zimbabwe has come to an end.

The military insist he is still in charge but his writ doesn't run beyond the walls of State House in Harare which is now surrounded by armoured vehicles under the command of former comrades.

Just a few weeks short of his 30 year anniversary as the second president of Zimbabwe, the veteran of guerrilla war and detention in Rhodesian prison is now a prisoner of the very men who helped liberate their country.

They might have put up with the 93-year-old head of state had he not looked weaker by the day while his wife, Grace, manoeuvred herself into power and disenfranchised other veterans of the guerrilla camps in favour of her own cronies.



 Major General SB Moyo insisted when announcing that there had not been a coup that Robert Mugabe was very much still the Zimbabwean president.

But he is not.

And he will not be able to recover from being so summarily and bloodlessly shoved aside.

Even his notorious Sixth Brigade of North Korean trained presidential guards were unable, or unwilling, to protect him as the armoured vehicles rolled on to the streets of Harare the night before his home was surrounded.

The armed forces said that they had intervened to end economic collapse and a purge of their fellow veterans from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union from the civil service and elsewhere.

Image:An armoured personnel carrier at an intersection in Harare

Mr Mugabe will principally be remembered for instituting ever greater autocracy and for turning a breadbasket nation into a beggar through land reforms which drove white farmers off their land, replacing them with political supporters who mostly failed to work the land effectively.

But among African leaders he has a different reputation. One that Westerners tend to ignore.

He is seen as a liberation leader who served as prime minister and then president of a country that was hamstrung by economic "reforms" forced on it by western donors during the 1990s that simultaneously demanded democratisation.

Once an Anglophile and an avid scholar of Shakespeare, Mr Mugabe turned against Britain, the former colonial power, and saw himself in the vanguard of the developing world's attempts to see off "western neo-imperialist" attempts to force unviable and unwelcome change.

His supporters meanwhile ignored the mass killing of Ndebele in the south of the country while he consolidated power during the 1980s when an estimated 10,000 people perished.

Video:'We are only targeting criminals around Mugabe'

His defiance of western pressure meant that Zimbabwe was starved of donor support and his authoritarianism opened the doors to widespread corruption, often driven by the most senior elements in the armed forces.

Illicit diamond mining, fuel smuggling and direct theft from the government's coffers became widespread in a country that had, and still often boasts, the highest literacy rate in Africa.

Tendai Biti, the leading opposition intellectual, has called for the intervention of the African Union following the coup.

The union has been intolerant of coups elsewhere in Africa and sent troops to put them down. It has been silent on events in Harare so far.

Perhaps in recognition that a bloodless intervention may be the only way Zimbabwe can end Mr Mugabe's rule.

But there is no clear route to what is coming next.

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5.4 quake in southeast South Korea causes some minor damage

The Associated PressDebris from a collapsed wall is scattered in front of a shop after an earthquake in Pohang, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017. A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck off South Korea's southeastern coast Wednesday afternoon, but no casualties were immediately reported.

A 5.4 magnitude earthquake shook South Korea's southeastern coastal region Wednesday afternoon, breaking some windows and crumbling walls near the epicenter. No casualties were reported.

The quake was centered off the coast about 9.3 kilometers (5.8 miles) northwest of the port city of Pohang, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. South Korea's state-run Korea Meteorological Administration measured the quake at the same strength but said the epicenter was inside Pohang.

Residents in the capital, more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) away, felt tremors and said their buildings shook.

South Korean media showed crumbled walls piled on parked cars, broken windows from some buildings and elementary school students taking shelter on a playground.

No injuries or major damage has been reported, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.

It's the strongest quake in South Korea since a 5.8-magnitude occurred near the ancient city of Gyeongju, which is close to Pohang, in September 2016, Korea Meteorological Administration officials said.

South Korea has relatively little seismic activity, unlike neighboring Japan.

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Do outter world really exist!!! Listen to the haunting impact that humans have had on the natural world.

Ecologist and musician Bernie Krause has made it his life’s work to record the planet’s vanishing soundscapes. Here’s why we need to tune into the environment.

Imagine, for a moment, a forest without the chirps of birds. A pond without the croak of frogs. A savannah without the trumpeting of elephants. Unfortunately, we seem to be headed in that direction as the planet’s soundtrack changes rapidly and irreparably. Ecologist and musician Bernie Krause has spent 40 years traveling the globe to record its soundscapes. Today, he says, more than 50 percent of the habitats captured in his archive -- which contains over 5,000 hours of recordings and features over 15,000 species -- have gone silent or been altered, their unique voices lost. His recordings are “an auditory Library of Alexandria for everything nonhuman,” as Carolyn Kormann wrote in the New Yorker.

The sounds of the natural world are captivating and beautiful, but they’re useful, too, points out Krause. Biophonies -- the collective sound produced by all of the organisms in a given habitat at a moment in time -- can provide important information about the health of an ecosystem. He believes sound has too often been overlooked in scientific surveys of the environment, which he compares to trying to study a film while ignoring its soundtrack.

“Visual impressions are not always efficient indicators,” Krause says. “I like to say: while a picture may be worth a thousand words, a soundscape is worth a thousand pictures.” By listening to a habitat’s biophony, scientists can assess its density (the total number of organisms), diversity (the total number of species), and richness (in this case, the number of sound-producing organisms within range of the mic).

Krause’s work can also provide the public with sobering proof of our species’ impact on the environment. Here, he takes us on an auditory tour of four habitats that have been damaged as a result of human practices like logging, mining and farming. “Natural sounds are the voices we need to heed closely. But we have to shut up,” he says. It’s time to start listening.

 

Coral reef, Vanua Levu, Fiji

Krause captured this spectrogram of a coral reef in 1995. Spectrograms are visual representations of sound that show the different frequencies in a biophony. One end of the reef was healthy and vibrant, while the other was bleached and dying from human-caused factors like warming waters and ocean acidification. The first 15 seconds of this clip were recorded in the healthy section, and you can hear crackling sounds -- these were the many clownfish, parrotfish, butterfly fish and other species gnawing on coral. Then, compare it to the last 15 seconds which were recorded in the bleached section, and it’s almost completely 

devoid of those noises.

Lincoln Meadow, Yuba Pass, California

Lincoln Meadow is nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, surrounded by forest and cut through by a clear mountain stream. Krause has been recording the meadow since the 1980s, when it still contained old-growth trees and was visited by the occasional hiker or skier. In 1988, after a logging company told residents that selective logging -- removing a few trees but leaving the bulk intact -- would have no negative impact on the meadow, it began cutting in the nearby forest.

Krause recorded the meadow before the logging, and the biophony included the sounds of mountain quail, finches, sparrows and sapsuckers. After 1988, he says, to the human eye or even a camera, the meadow appeared unchanged. But an audio recording revealed the loss of birds and frogs. Krause last visited the meadow five years ago, and “the biophony has not yet recovered to the levels of density and diversity present in the early 1980s,” he says.

Subtropical rainforest, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

When Krause first visited the Osa Peninsula in 1989, the area was relatively protected. In the first ten seconds of this clip, you can hear the sounds of a diverse and thriving ecosystem, including parrots, toucans and other bird species, like hummingbirds and yellow-billed continga; amphibians and insects; and howler monkeys.

By the time he returned in 1996, that biophony had vanished. Logging had commenced, and in some areas the trees had been completely cut down. Roads for the loggers crisscrossed the forest. The howler monkeys, uncomfortable on the ground, refused to descend from the canopy to cross the logging roads and reach food in other parts of the forest. In the last 14 seconds of the clips, the only sounds to be heard are the calls of a few birds and the sounds of some insects. While the same species remained in the area, says Krause, the change in the biophony was due to a dramatic decrease in the density of the animal life found there.

Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, California


This spectrogram is divided into four sections that show the effects of climate change on Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in northern California. The sections were recorded in four different years, in 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2015, all within 48 hours of the same day in April. Between 2004 and 2009, there is a notable decrease in the density of birdsong. Spring has arrived earlier and earlier every year, says Krause, possibly causing the migratory patterns of birds to change. Then in 2011, California started to enter one of the worst droughts the region had seen in centuries, a fact you can hear in the park’s soundscape. In the first two sections, a stream is clearly audible. By the third section, the stream is nearly silent, and in the fourth section, which was recorded at the peak of the drought, it can’t be heard at all. (Since this article was reported, 75 to 80 percent of the park was destroyed by wildfires.)

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10 Businesses That Can Make You Rich In Nigeria

To make money in Nigeria, you have to study the economy and what thrives in it. You can’t possibly sell winter jackets and expect to get returns from it, our weather is not inclined in that way. Here are some business you would like to move into

E-commerce
Customers are crucial in business and apart from this being a very promising venture, it is a sure section that guarantees you billions of customers. Working with an already established company would better help you understand how things work here before going on to start yours.

Construction materials
Infrastructure will forever be needed be it housing, hospitals, schools, etc. that is to say that there will always be a demand for building materials. The Dangote Group is well known for their innovation in this aspect. Though it requires a substantial capital but there is also a continued assurance of you being in business all year long

Real Estate
Land will always appreciate and people are making money in it especially in Lagos. Most people don’t even rent homes now, they buy them. This is a lucrative business to put investment into. If you want to be successful here like Warren Buffett, you need to know that it is expensive and line up your financing.

Oil and Gas

What most Nigerians don’t know is that we are one of the biggest producers and exporters of oil in Africa and the world. Most people have started running petrol stations across the country, distributing diesel and kerosene in large quantities. This also requires a lot of capital, but it will keep you in business and make you millions for a very long time. I personally know someone who started a small petrol station in Kaduna last year and it has only gotten better ever since.

Rice Farming
One of the visions we are driving at in Nigeria is food security. Though it is sometimes hard labor to cultivate and also capital intensive, you are definitely going to remain in business. For example, Rice is a staple crop in Nigeria with high demand across the country. Sadly we still have to import this product from countries like Thailand even when we have the means to do it. Invest in this

Hotel Business
The hotel business is highly competitive, granted, but it is another goldmine waiting to be tapped. As usual, you will need capital but what would keep you in the game is excellent management skills.

Snail Rearing

Now to a low-cost business; snail. They are also low maintenance and don’t require a lot of food. Not many people are into this business, so that’s an edge for you especially as the demand is rising.

Poultry farming

Poultry farming will put you in business all year long turning your capital into millions. Even if you don’t start with many birds, you can always start with a few hundred work your way up from there. This guarantees millions if you are religious about it.

Trade in Second-Hand items

Simply, fairly used products or tokunbo trade. A fraction of Nigerians would rather purchase fairly used products in order to save money be it electronics, cars, clothes. This may not guarantee you millions in the beginning but there is a method to everything. In markets all over the country, second-hand items are moving fast. The OLX website is also known for its safe trade of products and services.

Transport Sector

You need management skills to venture profitably into this business. Transport companies make millions of money from it every day. Also, you will need a good amount of initial capital. There is always business for road transportation in Nigeria and companies like ABC and God Is Good transport among many others, have found a niche here.

Extracted from Nairaland

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Taylor Swift in legal row with blogger who suggested she encouraged white supremacy groups

The American Civil Liberties Union has come to the defence of a blogger who said the star was "an icon of white supremacists".

Thursday 09 November 2017
Image:Taylor Swift has threatened a blogger with legal action


Pop star Taylor Swift has been accused of "unacceptable intimidation tactics" after threatening legal action against a blogger.


The singer's lawyer wrote to Meghan Herning regarding an article she wrote for online politics and culture magazine PopFront, which suggested that lyrics from Swift's new album Reputation, due for release on Friday, encouraged white supremacist movements.


Citing posts on far-right blogs and websites, Ms Herning discussed the idea that Swift was "an icon of white supremacist, nationalists and other fringe groups", performing lyrics that spoke to their "anger, entitlement and selfishness".

She said imagery in the music video for Look What You Made Me Do, the first single released from Reputation, bore "uncanny and unsettling" similarities to the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

The article, dated 5 September and titled 'Swiftly to the alt-right: Taylor subtly gets the lower case kkk in formation', also criticises the singer for not endorsing Hillary Clinton ahead of last year's US presidential election.

It says that her relative political silence could be seen as a "subtle encouragement" of the far right.

Image:Reputation is due for release on Friday

In a letter dated 25 October, Swift's lawyer accuses Ms Herning of defamation and demands the article's removal, alongside the publication of a full retraction. The letter states that the blog post is "replete with demonstrable and offensive falsehoods" that "completely misrepresent" the award-winning star.

The letter also threatens a lawsuit and warns Ms Herning against making it public by citing US copyright law, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has now waded into the dispute on behalf of the blogger and published the lawyer's letter.

The ACLU has written to Swift and her representative demanding that they refute their "meritless legal defamation threats" and asking them to confirm that they will not pursue a lawsuit by 13 November. The union says that the blog post is opinion protected by the First Amendment.

The ACLU's letter says that her public profile leaves her open to "adverse as well as favourable comment" and - quoting one of Swift's most popular tracks - says that she should be able to "shake it off".

ACLU attorney Matt Cagle said: "Intimidation tactics like these are unacceptable.

"Not in her wildest dreams can Ms Swift use copyright law to suppress this exposure of a threat to constitutionally protected speech."

Sky News has contacted Swift's publicist for comment.

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'You Only Live Twice' Bond girl Karin Dor dies

The German actress also starred in Alfred Hitchcock's 1969 thriller Topaz and American TV crime drama Ironside in 1970.

Thursday 09 November 2017
Image:Karin Dor and Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice, 1967

German actress Karin Dor, who played legendary Bond girl Helga Brandt alongside Sean Connery, has died at the age of 79.

A theatre in Munich where she had worked for several years confirmed the actress died in a care home on Monday.

Dor, who famously played an assassin sent to kill James Bond in You Only Live Twice, appeared in dozens of films, TV shows and theatre plays during her career after she started performing at the age of 17 in her homeland.

Apart from her James Bond role in 1967, which saw her character being fed to piranhas, she also appeared in the 1969 thriller Topaz, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in which she played Juanita de Cordoba.

Image:Karin Dor played Helga Brandt in 1967

She appeared in US crime drama Ironside too, playing Jeanine Duvalier in the TV show.

The actress was married three times, most recently to stuntman and actor George Robotham, who died in 2007.

She is survived by her son Andreas, who she had from her previous marriage to Austrian film director Harald Reinl.

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LA task force to evaluate Hollywood sex claims

A team of specially trained lawyers will look at cases referred by the police following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.

 UK,Friday 10 November 2017
Image:There have been dozens of allegations made against Harvey Weinstein


Prosecutors in Los Angeles have established a task force to deal with the sprawling allegations of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry.


The city's district attorney Jackie Lacey announced she had formed a team of specially trained lawyers to evaluate any cases referred to her by police.


It is the latest legal development in a growing scandal which continues to rock Hollywood.

Detectives in the cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, along with police in New York and London, are currently investigating serious allegations made by a number of women against the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Last month Weinstein was fired from the company he founded after a number of women went public with allegations of sexual misconduct. Since then, dozens more have made similar accusations against him.

The 65-year-old, once one of the most powerful figures in the movie business, has been ostracised by everyone from the Oscars' Academy and BAFTA. He has separated from his British wife, Georgina Chapman, and has undergone therapy at a rehab centre in Arizona.

Image:Harvey Weinstein's wife Georgina Chapman has left him

But new claims have continued to surface about other household names in the entertainment industry.

Lacey said: "I have assigned the group of veteran sex crimes prosecutors to work together to ensure a uniformed approach to the legal review and possible prosecution of any case that meets both the legal and factual standards for criminal prosecution."

So far, she said, no cases had been referred by police for "possible criminal filing".


Hollywood has been wrestling with how to address the issues arising from the Weinstein scandal and ridding the industry of its "casting couch" culture.

It has also been encouraged to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse by paedophiles working in the entertainment industry.

Earlier this month two former child actors told Sky News of the abuse they suffered and the difficulties they encountered in trying to report it.

But the viral spread of the hashtag 'MeToo', started by the actress Alyssa Milano and adopted by hundreds of thousands of women relating their own stories of harassment in all walks of life, has exposed the scale of the problem beyond the entertainment industry.

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Star Wars fans will get new trilogy of films

The three films will be created by Rian Johnson, who is behind the upcoming new instalment The Last Jedi.

Friday 10 November 2017
Image:Scene from The Last Jedi. Pic: Walt Disney / Lucas Film

Three new films are planned to add to the Star Wars universe, it has been confirmed.


The films will expand the universe outside of the Skywalker saga - and will introduce a slew of new characters.


They will be created by Rian Johnson, who is behind the upcoming new instalment The Last Jedi, the saga's eighth film due for release in December.

Johnson's regular collaborator Ram Bergman will produce the films.

Image:Rian Johnson will direct the three extra films with Ram Bergman

In a joint statement, the two said: "We had the time of our lives collaborating with Lucasfilm and Disney on The Last Jedi.

"Star Wars is the greatest modern mythology and we feel very lucky to have contributed to it.

"We can't wait to continue with this new series of films."

Image:The new films will extend the popular Star Wars franchise

Lucasfilm's president Kathleen Kennedy said Johnson is "a creative force and watching him craft The Last Jedi from start to finish was one of the great joys of my career".

"Rian will do amazing things with the blank canvas of this new trilogy."

The original franchise has nine films, including the final installment known as Star Wars: Episode IX, which is directed by JJ Abrams and will be released in 2019.

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Louis CK cancels film premiere and TV appearance amid allegations of sexual misconduct

The premiere for the comedian's I Love You Daddy was cancelled along with a Late Show appearance after the allegations emerged.

Friday 10 November 2017
Image:A publicist for Louis CK did not immediately respond to comment


US comedian Louis CK has cancelled the premiere for his new film amid allegations of sexual misconduct made by five women.


The premiere for I Love You Daddy was cancelled along with an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was scheduled for Friday.


Comedy actresses Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov are among the accusers.

After performing at the US Comedy Arts Festival in 2002, Louis CK invited them up to his hotel room after their show, The New York Times reports.

They told the newspaper they agreed because they wanted to celebrate and he was a comedian they admired.

As soon as they sat down, the comedian masturbated in front of them, they said.

Image:The I Love You Daddy premiere was cancelled amid the allegations

Another actress, Abby Schachner, said the comedian masturbated while he was on the phone to her when she called to invite him to one of her shows.

Rebecca Corry, a comedian, claims the actor asked her if he could masturbate in front of her in 2005.

And a fifth woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, says he repeatedly asked her to watch him masturbate while she was working in production on The Chris Rock Show in the late 1990s, when he was a writer and producer.

She went along with his request and he performed the act while sat in his desk chair, she said, with her in his office and colleagues just outside.

Louis CK's publicist Lewis Kay responded to the New York Times report by saying that the comedian "is not going to answer any questions".

In an email to Reuters, he said that Louis CK would issue a written statement "in the coming days".

It is the latest in a series of sexual assault allegations against powerful figures in Hollywood, including those against Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein.

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John Hillerman, Higgins on Magnum PI, dies aged 84

Hillerman, who excelled as Tom Selleck's pompous aide in the 1980s, also starred in some of the biggest films of the 1970s.

10:26, UK,Friday 10 November 2017
Image:John Hillerman was a big film star in the 1970s before taking on the role of Higgins

John Hillerman, the actor who played Tom Selleck's snooty aide Higgins on Magnum PI, has died aged 84.

Hillerman, whose health had been declining for the past year, died of natural causes on Thursday at his home in Houston, Texas.

On Magnum PI he was the antithesis of Thomas Magnum - a grumpy, stiff and self-righteous right-hand man to the relaxed and overconfident detective.

Hillerman played the character with a mixture of seriousness and humour which made him all the more credible and, in 1987, got him an Emmy.

Born in Texas, Hillerman played Higgins with a quasi-British accent which he developed after decades of acting on stage.

Image:John Hillerman and Tom Selleck on the set of Magnum PI

Before being playing the manager of Magnum's home estate in Hawaii, Hillerman starred in some of the biggest films of the 1970s - including Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show and Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter.

He also starred as one of many Johnsons in Mel Brooks' own version of a western, the comical Blazing Saddler.

But none of his film roles had the allure of Higgins. His nephew Chris Tritico, who broke the news of Hillerman's death, said the actor's favourite role had been in the 1980s TV series.

"The reason he didn't take another big role is he refused to take a sitcom after Magnum," he said.

"He wanted to continue doing the serious work that he felt Magnum was."

Paying tribute to his uncle, an air force veteran, he added: "He had an outstanding sense of humour and was one of the most well-read people I ever met. You couldn't play Scrabble with him."

Hillerman retired about 17 years ago - content with leaving Hollywood behind and returning to his native state of Texas.

At his request, no services will be held.

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