Foreign News
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga dies of heart attack in India at 80
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, a key figure in African politics, has died at the age of 80 during a trip to India for medical treatment, according to local police and hospital officials.
The former prime minister, who as opposition leader had waged five unsuccessful presidential campaigns between 1997 and 2022, had suffered a heart attack, the Devamatha Hospital in the southern Indian state of Kerala confirmed to The Associated Press news agency on Wednesday.
Odinga was a dominant force in Kenyan politics, and his death will leave a significant leadership vacuum within the country’s political opposition ahead of elections in 2027.
An Indian police official told the AFP news agency that Odinga had been on a morning walk, accompanied by his sister, daughter, a personal doctor, and Indian and Kenyan security officers, when he collapsed.
“He was rushed to a nearby private hospital, but was declared dead,” said Krishnan M, additional superintendent of police in Ernakulam, Kerala.
Unnamed officials in Odinga’s office also confirmed the death to news agencies.
Indian newspaper Mathrubhumi had earlier reported the death, adding that Odinga had been undergoing medical treatment in the state’s Kochi city.
Born on January 7, 1945, Odinga was the son of the country’s first vice president after independence in 1963.
A member of the Luo tribe, he spent most of his adult life in politics, including time in exile and eight years in prison as a pro-democracy campaigner – but never achieved his goal of becoming Kenya’s president.
Odinga first entered parliament in 1992, and ran unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1997, 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
He claimed to have been cheated of victory in the last four elections, and led protests after the disputed 2007 election that led to Kenya’s most serious bout of political violence since independence.
About 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes in the battles. Large-scale protests also broke out during the 2017 election, in which the Supreme Court annulled the results of an initial poll, and Odinga withdrew from the follow-up, saying it would not be free and fair.
Odinga’s pro-democracy activism over the years helped drive two of the country’s most significant political reforms: multiparty democracy in 1991 and a new constitution in 2010.
In March, he signed a pact with Kenyan President William Ruto that saw his opposition Azimio la Umoja party involved in critical policymaking and its members appointed to the cabinet.
Kenya’s former chief justice and presidential hopeful, David Maraga, said he was “shocked” by news of Odinga’s death.
Odinga was “a patriot, a pan-Africanist, a democrat and a leader who made significant contributions to democracy in Kenya and in Africa”, Maraga wrote on X.
“Kenya has lost one of its most formidable leaders who shaped the trajectory of our beloved country. Africa has lost a leading voice in pushing for peace, security and development. The world has lost a great leader,” he added.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was among the first to react, posting on X: “On behalf of the Government of Ethiopia, I extend my sincere condolences on the passing of former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. May he Rest In Peace.”
[Aljazeera]
Ukraine has hit back at Russia’s attempts to disable its energy infrastructure with air strikes that succeeded in disrupting power and heating in two cities across the border.
Kyiv’s drone and missile attacks cut power and heating on Sunday in the Russian cities of Belgorod near the border and Voronezh nearly 300km (186 miles) away.
In Belgorod, local Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said missile strikes caused “serious damage” to power and heating systems supplying the city, affecting some 20,000 households.
Alexander Gusev, regional governor of Voronezh, said several drones were electronically jammed over the city – home to more than one million people – and sparked a fire at a local utility facility that was quickly extinguished.
A Russian Defence Ministry statement made no mention of either the Voronezh or Belgorod areas, reporting 44 Ukrainian drones were destroyed or intercepted by Russian forces during the night.
Local authorities in the Rostov region also reported an hours-long blackout in the city of Taganrog, home to some 240,000 people, blaming it on an emergency shutdown of a power line. Local media reported a nearby transformer substation caught fire.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in overnight attacks on Ukraine, targeting substations that supply two nuclear power plants and killing seven people, Ukrainian officials told Reuters news agency.
Russia’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Saturday that it launched “a massive strike with high-precision long-range air, ground and sea-based weapons” on weapons production plants and gas and energy facilities in response to Kyiv’s earlier strikes on Russia.
On Sunday, the northeastern region of Kharkiv was still struggling to recover from Russia’s attacks, which left about 100,000 people without power.
State-owned energy company Tsentrenergo said the attacks were the largest on its facilities since the start of the war in February 2022, and it halted operations at plants in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.
Moscow launched 69 drones at energy facilities across Ukraine overnight into Sunday, of which 34 were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force.
Russia and Ukraine have traded almost daily assaults on each other’s energy infrastructure as United States-led diplomatic efforts to stop the nearly four-year war appear to be leading nowhere fast.
Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries have aimed to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue the war.
Meanwhile, Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, lights, and running water for a fourth consecutive winter in what amounts to a weaponisation of the extreme cold.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Sunday that he’s ready to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss the war on Ukraine and mend bilateral ties.
Lavrov repeated that peace can’t be achieved without “taking Russian interests into account” – a phrase Moscow has used to signal it is standing firm in its maximalist demands for Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Kyiv withdraw troops from the entirety of the four regions Moscow claims as part of Russia: Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine – which make up the Donbas – plus Kherson and Zaporizhia in the south.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some Russian-occupied territories might be acknowledged as temporarily seized, but has ruled out any official recognition, saying he does not have a mandate to give away territory.
Lavrov’s move comes weeks after efforts to organise a summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump were abruptly cancelled.
[Aljazeera]
Foreign News
Thousands of Chinese lured abroad and forced to be scammers – now Beijing is cracking down
“Should I feel anything?” asks the beady-eyed man, sitting in a padded cell with handcuffs around his wrists.
He’s being grilled by Chinese investigators about the time he allegedly ordered a stranger to be killed – a human offering to celebrate his sworn brotherhood with a business partner.
“Wasn’t he a living, breathing person?” an investigator asks.
“I didn’t feel much,” the man maintains.
The scene may sound like it came straight out of a crime drama. In fact, it is part of a documentary on Chinese state media – a look inside the workings of the justice system almost unheard of in a country where court proceedings are largely kept out the public eye.
The handcuffed man answering questions is Chen Dawei, a member of the infamous Wei family, one of several powerful mafia groups that for years operated with impunity in Myanmar’s border town of Laukkaing.
His confession forms just one part of a months-long propaganda push by Chinese officials. It both warns Chinese people of South East Asia’s billion-dollar scam industry, and highlights the Chinese government’s crackdown on the men behind an industry which has trapped thousands, and stolen billions.
The message China wants to send, as one investigator puts it, is clear: “It’s to warn other people, no matter who you are, where you are, as long as you commit such heinous crimes against Chinese people, you will pay the price.”
Or, to use a Chinese idiom: kill the chicken to scare the monkey.
There are few chickens bigger than the Weis, Lius, Mings and Bais – Godfather-esque families who rose to power in Laukkaing in the early 2000s.
Under their rule, the impoverished backwater was transformed into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light districts.
More recent are the scam farms – which hold people against their will, forcing them to defraud strangers online, or face brutal punishment or even death. Many of those trapped were Chinese and targeted people in China.
But the families’ empires came crashing down in 2023, when Myanmar authorities arrested them and handed them to China. Since then, Chinese courts have tried them for crimes ranging from fraud to human trafficking to homicide.
Examples are now being made out of the families: 11 members of the Ming clan and five of the Bais have been sentenced to death, while dozens have been given lengthy jail terms. Prosecution is under way for the Lius and the Weis.
Their ignominious falls from grace are clear in the documentaries they feature in, from the glint of their handcuffs to the colour of their prison uniforms.
It is a far cry from the lives they were living just two years ago.
The rise of Myanmar’s scam clans
The godfathers of Laukkaing rose to power after Min Aung Hlaing, who now heads Myanmar’s military government, led an operation to oust the town’s then-dominant warlord.
The military leader had been looking for co-operative allies, and Bai Suocheng – then a deputy of the warlord – fitted the bill.
Bai was appointed the chairman of Laukkaing district and his family came to command a 2,000-strong militia, Chinese media reported.
In the power vacuum left by these changes, a handful of families swooped in, securing military and political power.
According to Chinese investigators, the Wei family had one member of parliament and another military camp commander. Meanwhile, the Lius controlled key infrastructure like water and electricity and exerted strong influence over local security forces.
For years they made their money through gambling and prostitution.
But more recently they expanded to cyberscam operations, with each family controlling dozens of scam compounds and casinos that raked in billions of dollars.
While the families lived large with grand banquets and luxury cars, a culture of abominable violence thrived behind the walls of their scam compounds, Chinese authorities said.
Testimonies collected from freed workers point to a common pattern of abuse: fingers chopped off with knives, zaps of electric batons and regular beatings. Unco-operative workers were locked in small dark rooms and starved or beaten until they gave in.
China’s war on the ‘scamdemic’
Many of the Chinese workers had been lured there with lucrative job offers – no doubt tempting amid China’s economic slowdown and high youth unemployment.
Horror stories of such scam centres have seeped into daily chatter in China, from taxi rides to social media and pop culture.
No More Bets, a 2023 blockbuster about Chinese people trafficked to a foreign scam farm, kept millions of Chinese tourists away from Thailand – which has gained a reputation for being a transit hub to scam centres in Myanmar and Cambodia.
In January this year, the national spotlight was on Wang Xing, a small-time Chinese actor who had flown to Thailand for an acting gig, only to be taken to a scam centre across the border in Myanmar.
His family’s search for him went viral and he was ultimately rescued.
But Wang is in the lucky minority. Many Chinese people are still looking for their loved ones who have disappeared into South East Asia’s scam centres.
“My cousin was lured there four or five years ago. We haven’t heard from him at all. My aunt is in tears every day, it’s hard to describe her current condition,” a Weibo user wrote last month.
Selina Ho, associate professor specialising in Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore, tells the BBC that “by publicising the most recent crackdown, Chinese authorities are aiming to calm domestic sentiments and reassure the families of victims”.
The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in scam centres worldwide.
Much to Beijing’s chagrin, those running many such scam centres are often Chinese themselves.
This is common knowledge among Chinese citizens. “Once you’re abroad, the people you should least trust are your own countrymen,” reads a comment on Weibo.
“The fact that Chinese nationals are the masterminds behind many of these operations has been deeply damaging to China’s image on the international stage,” Ivan Franceschini, co-author of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds, tells the BBC.
As anxieties rise at home, Chinese authorities are eager to show their resolve in eradicating these massive scam networks.
Since 2023, Chinese and Myanmar authorities have arrested more than 57,000 Chinese nationals for their role in cyberscams, state media reported.
And they’ve made it clear that it’s not just the Godfathers they’re after. In October, China announced the prosecution of another syndicate which they described as a “new generation of power” in Laukkaing that’s “no less violent” than the infamous families.
In – yet another – state media documentary, a Chinese official investigating this syndicate recalled what his team leader had told him: “If this case can’t be solved, there will be a permanent stain on your career.”
For all the effort that China is putting into its crackdown and the ensuing publicity, the numbers offer some optimism: cyberscams reported in China have declined steadily over the past year, and authorities say such crimes have been “effectively curbed”.
As one official told documentary viewers, investigating scam gangs in Myanmar has made him realise “how happy we are in China, and how important a sense of security is to Chinese people”.
[BBC]
A new chapter in South Africa’s long-running Zuma saga is set to begin with the 43-year-old daughter of the former president due to go on trial this week on terrorism-related charges.
In what is believed to be a first for the country, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla is being prosecuted over what she wrote on social media four years ago during deadly protests.
Jacob Zuma’s nine-year presidency, littered with controversies, came to a halt in 2018 amid extensive graft allegations – all denied.
Then in 2021 he was jailed for failing to show up at a corruption inquiry, triggering protests and the worst scenes of violence since before the start of the democratic era in 1994.
A week of anarchy in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, including looting and arson, left at least 300 people dead and caused an estimated $2.8bn (£2.2bn) damage.
Prosecutors allege Zuma-Sambudla played a central role in stoking this.
This unique trial will be a chance for the state’s legal team to prove its mettle in successfully prosecuting cases relating to the 2021 unrest, but the accused sees it as an attempt to settle political scores with her father.
He is now an opposition leader after leaving the African National Congress (ANC) and joining a rival party, Mkhonto weSizwe (MK).
In recent years Zuma-Sambudla has emerged as the former president’s most stalwart supporter regularly seen by his side. She has also become an MK member of parliament.
In 2021, she was outraged by his incarceration and posted images from the looting. The allegation is that these praised what was happening and incited her legion of social media followers, some 100,000 at the time, to press on with the mayhem.
Zuma-Sambudla is accused of the incitement to commit terrorism under the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act. She is also accused of the incitement to commit public violence.
She has denied the charges, with her lawyer describing the state’s case as “weak”. She used a procedural hearing ahead of the trial to take shots at the prosecution, wearing a shirt ironically branded with the words “Modern Day Terrorist”.
Several dozen posts from July 2021 on what was then known as Twitter are at the heart of the state’s case against her.
In one tweet, she shared a film of a vehicle transporter ablaze and stacked with cars shot at Mooi Plaza, a tollgate near one of the towns in KwaZulu-Natal hardest hit by the violence. Along with the hashtag #FreeJacobZuma she wrote: “Mooi Plaza…We See You!!! Amandla”, along with three fist emojis.
“Amandla” means power in the Zulu language and was a well-known slogan in the resistance movement against white-minority apartheid rule.
In another tweet she shared a poster calling for the “shut down” of KwaZulu-Natal including “roads, factories, shops [and] government” until the former president was released.
She also included the Zulu word “azishe” which literally means “let it burn” but in slang can mean “let it start” or “let it proceed”.
The MP was born and raised in Mozambique, where her father was living in exile after spending a decade as a political prisoner in South Africa. She grew up with her twin brother Duduzane and was one of Zuma’s five children with his third wife Kate Mantsho – who took her own life in 2000.
Duduzile and Duduzane are arguably the most well-known of Zuma’s rumoured 20 children with several wives and former partners.
For several years, it was Duduzane who dominated headlines after his association with the controversial Gupta family came to light in the early 2010s.
That family was at the centre of the corruption allegations that plagued the Zuma presidency. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing.
Apart from her lavish wedding to businessman Lonwabo Sambudla in 2011, dubbed the wedding of the year at the time, Zuma-Sambudla kept out of the spotlight. She mostly focused on raising her two daughters and being a housewife, according to South Africa’s Daily Maverick news site.
She separated from her husband in 2017.
It was around that time that she was seen increasingly at her father’s side whenever he appeared in public, either in court or at political events – as a result the spotlight turned towards her.
Zuma-Sambudla backed her father when he joined the MK party. Despite being a political novice, she now has a seat in parliament, after last year’s general election, and is an influential figure in the party despite holding no official position.
She was also appointed to the African Union’s Pan-African Parliament.
Aside from her controversial 2021 tweets, Zuma-Sambudla has become adept at using her social media accounts to show off her regimented fitness routine, provide glimpses into her private life and throw the occasional barb at her political opponents.
Her higher public profile now makes the case against her “very highly politicised with a strong public interest”, Willem Els, from think-tank the Institute for Security Studies, told the BBC.
Political science academic Prof Bheki Mngomezulu believes the case is politically motivated and a “way of fighting her father”.
“If she wasn’t the daughter of the former president, chances are these charges would have been dropped a long time ago,” he argued.
Both experts also questioned the delay in charging her.
The police’s elite corruption-busting agency, the Hawks, confirmed her arrest in January this year – nearly four years after the deadly protests.
“The fact that so few unrest-related cases have reached conviction also raises eyebrows around whether the prosecution is selective,” Mr Els said.
There have only been a handful of other cases relating to the violence in 2021 that have reached court.
The South African Human Rights Commission, in a statement released earlier this year, indicated that 66 possible cases were currently with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) but it faced challenges due to a “general lack of evidence… and hesitations by witnesses to co-operate or testify due to fears of reprisal and victimisation”.
In the Zuma-Sambudla case, the “high evidentiary bar” will be a big challenge for the prosecutors to show that it was not “just commentary or protest”.
“Prosecutors need to prove intent and causation that a post directly incited terrorism.”
He added that there were “few successful prosecutions” under the relevant legislation and that it was the first time in South Africa’s “legal history that someone has been charged specifically with incitement of terrorism via social media”.
NPA spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga acknowledged in January that the case was “complex in nature” and prosecutors had to bring in external “experts on social media because [the police don’t] have an expert on social media”.
The NPA, however, would not have taken it this far if it was not confident with the case it had built, Mr Els added.
The MK has slammed the case against Zuma-Sambudla as a “social injustice”, while spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela dismissed the “trumped up charges” as a “political ploy” and persecution.
Regardless of whether the prosecution is successful or not the party could make hay from the case and present her as a martyr.
Meanwhile, it is likely to generate massive interest from the public and become part of the country’s continuing Zuma drama.
[BBC]
Ukraine drone strikes throw power supplies into disarray in Russian cities
This year’s Budget has covered all sectors – Prime Minister
Showers above 75 mm are likely at some places in Uva, Southern, Sabaragamuwa and Central provinces and in Ampara and Batticaloa districts.
Opposition urges govt. to scrap controversial tender for 1,775 pickup trucks
Colombo Archbishop calls for halt to ‘inappropriate sex education programme’
GCE A/L to commence today
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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