33 rescued lions flown from Peru to S. Africa

Yahoo – AFP, Moises Avila, April 30, 2016

The lions, with names such as Zeus and Shakira, were freed after the use of
wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru in 2011 and Colombia in 2013
(AFP Photo/Cris Bouroncle)

Lima (AFP) - More than 30 lions rescued from abuse in Peruvian and Colombian circuses were flown Friday to South Africa, in what campaigners called the largest-ever airlift of big cats.

The 33 lions, with names such as Zeus and Shakira, were freed after the use of wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru in 2011 and Colombia in 2013.

The Colombian circuses gave up the

 lions voluntarily but police had to launch

 raids to free the lions in Peru (AFP

Photo/Cris Bouroncle)

Saved from the lion tamer's whip, they have been rounded up with the help of authorities by Animal Defenders International (ADI), an animal rights charity.

"It's truly wonderful that these lions, after a lifetime of suffering and abuse in circuses, are going home to Africa," said the president of ADI, Jan Creamer.

"All of the lions when they arrive from the circuses have health problems, parasites, disease," she added.

"All of their lives they haven't had enough food, so they have long-term malnutrition problems."

Recent months have been spent in straw-lined cages in a refuge north of Lima, however, they have been well fed and are in generally good health, Creamer said.

Twenty-four lions rescued in Peru were driven from their temporary rescue center to Lima airport to be picked up by a cargo plane that brought another nine over from Colombia.

Late Friday, the airlift took off, transporting the big cats to their new life.

"We are on our way!" read a post on the ADI website.

"The 33 lions are on board the ADI Spirit Of Freedom Flight, on route to their wonderful new lives at Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary, South Africa."

Graphic, including map, illustrating how lions from circuses in Peru and

 Colombia are to be released into a game park in South Africa (AFP Photo/

Tamara Hoha)

The contingent of big cats includes Shakira, named after the Colombian pop singer. Her minders say she likes to play with a tire and eat watermelons.

From one of 10 Peruvian circuses comes "Ricardo, the one-eyed lion" and from another "Joseph, the almost-blind lion."

'Heading home to paradise'

Together, the 33 were to take a 15-hour flight to South Africa in travel cages inside the plane chartered by ADI.

They will arrive on Saturday in Johannesburg and be taken on to the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in the north of the country.

"The lions will be in their natural habitat for the first time in their lives," Creamer said. "They should fit right into that habitat. It's the best environment for them."

ADI says it is the biggest transfer of such large captive animals ever.

Workers carry a cage containing a former circus lion at the El Dorado Airport

 in Bogota, Colombia, April 29, 2016. Nine former circus lions will be taken to the

 Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in South Africa where ADI (Animal Defenders 

International) officials said they will enjoy natural enclosures with drinking

pools, platforms and toys. Reuters/John Vizcaino

In the circuses the lions were poorly fed and trucked around in cages, the group said. The Colombian circuses gave up the nine lions voluntarily but police had to launch raids to free the lions in Peru.

The rescuers say that one of the Peru contingent, Smith, attacked a teacher from a school party when she was invited into his cage by a lion tamer.

"Almost all of the rescued lions have been mutilated to remove their claws, one has lost an eye, another is almost blind, and many have smashed and broken teeth so would not survive in the wild," ADI said in a statement.

At their new home, "the lions will enjoy large natural enclosures situated in pristine African bush, complete with drinking pools, platforms and toys," it added.

"The lion habitats will be steadily expanded over the coming months as the lions become familiar with their new life and are introduced to each other."

The cost of the transfer is $10,000 per cat, ADI said.

"These lions have endured hell on earth," Creamer said.

"Now they are heading home to paradise."

As the final lion boarded, we were ready to fly! https://t.co/saoaOdVjMh #lionsbacktoAfrica pic.twitter.com/2ZStgRJnEn

— ADI (@AnimalDefenders) April 29, 2016

Related Article:

Abused circus lions flown to new home in South African bush

#SpiritOfFreedomFlight is cleared for takeoff and we're off! Simba is taking a nap! https://t.co/saoaOdVjMh pic.twitter.com/eVrUB9Yq6Q

— ADI (@AnimalDefenders) April 29, 2016

Palestinians unveil gift of giant Mandela statue

Yahoo – AFP, April 26, 2016

Palestinian and South African officials pose in front of a giant statue of Nelson
Mandela during its inauguration ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah
on April 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/Abbas Momani)

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinians on Tuesday inaugurated a giant statue of Nelson Mandela donated by the South African city of Johannesburg to their political capital in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The six-metre (20-foot) two-tonne bronze statue was a gift from Johannesburg with which Ramallah is twinned.

Late South African president Nelson Mandela 

opens debate on the Truth And Reconciliation 

Commission (TRC) report in Parliament in Cape 

Town in February, 1999 (AFP Photo/Anna Zieminski)

"I think that Nelson Mandela himself would have been extremely proud of what has been done today," Parks Tau, the mayor of the South African city, told AFP.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas also attended the ceremony at the renamed Nelson Mandela Square in the Al-Tireh district.

Mandela, who died in 2013, was South Africa's first president after the era of apartheid, a regime of segregation that the Palestinians accuse Israel of also imposing.

He was an ardent supporter of the Palestinian cause and a champion for Middle East peace.

Ramallah several days ago installed huge posters celebrating the South African leader bearing his comment: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians".

Ramallah mayor Mussa Hadid said the statue "symbolises the shared suffering" of the South African and Palestinian peoples.

During its journey to the pedestal in the West Bank, the statue was retained by Israeli customs for 30 days, as the Palestinian Authority does not control its own borders.

"Nelson Mandela, who had already spent 28 years in the jails of the apartheid regime in South Africa, was again detained for 30 days by the Israeli authorities," Hadid said.

Tau said Israeli customs had sought duty "equivalent to 10 times the price of the statue", but that this was not paid.

Hadid said the statue sent "a clear message to the Israeli coloniser and occupier -- that we are closer to freedom than you think".

Palestinians unveil gift of giant Mandela statue https://t.co/mmWX3wamJV pic.twitter.com/O7Pql128sw

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 27, 2016

US transfers nine Yemeni inmates from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia

Yahoo – AFP, April 16, 2016

Part of the US Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is seen from La Gobernadora viewpoint
 in Guantanamo province, Cuba on March 13, 2016 (AFP Photo/Nicolas Garcia)

Washington (AFP) - The Pentagon on Saturday announced the transfer of nine Yemeni inmates from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia, bringing the remaining population at the controversial military prison down to 80.

The United States has in recent months accelerated the rate at which detainees who have been approved for transfer are released from the facility, which President Barack Obama wants to close before his term ends at the end of the year.

US President Barack Obama delivers a 

statement on the Guantanamo Bay 

detention camp on February 23, 2016 in

 the Roosevelt Room of the White House in

Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

Saturday's release marks the largest transfer since 10 Yemenis were sent to Oman in January. It is the first time Saudi Arabia has taken any former Guantanamo inmates.

"The United States is grateful to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," the Pentagon said in a statement.

The men arrived in Saudi Arabia earlier on Saturday. Most had been cleared for release years ago, but faced delays owing in part to their home country descending into civil war, meaning they could not be repatriated.

The nine inmates are: Ahmed Umar Abdullah Al-Hikimi, Abdul Rahman Mohammed Saleh Nasir, Ali Yahya Mahdi Al-Raimi, Tariq Ali Abdullah Ahmed Ba Odah, Muhammed Abdullah Muhammed Al-Hamiri, Ahmed Yaslam Said Kuman, Abd al Rahman Al-Qyati, Mansour Muhammed Ali Al-Qatta, and Mashur Abdullah Muqbil Ahmed Al-Sabri.

Of the 80 remaining inmates, 26 have been approved for transfer. Obama wants to send the rest, deemed to be the most dangerous, for incarceration in the United States but Republican lawmakers have steadfastly resisted any such move.

Guantanamo is a US naval base carved out of a remote chunk of land on the tip of southeastern Cuba. The administration of George W. Bush opened a prison there to hold terror suspects soon after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

In all, it has housed about 780 inmates over the years.

Republican presidential candidates have vowed that, if elected, they would send more terror suspects to Guantanamo instead of closing it.

Related Articles:

Guantanamo population below 100 as 10 Yemenis sent to Oman

Pope Francis offers US help in closing Guantanamo

Pope Francis waves to the crowd during his general audience

at St Peter's square on December 17, 2014 at the Vatican

.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia agree $16 bn investment fund, settle maritime spat

Yahoo – AFP, Samer Al-Atrush, April 10, 2016

A picture released by the Egyptian Presidency on April 7, 2016 shows Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) meeting with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz
in the capital Cairo (AFP Photo)

Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman agreed to set up a $16-billion investment fund Saturday and settled a long-standing maritime dispute as the monarch continued his rare visit to the country.

A day after Salman announced a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, the heads of state met at the historic Abdeen Palace in Cairo to oversee the inking of a string of agreements Egypt hopes will help boost its battered economy.

In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.

The 80-year-old Saudi monarch's visit to Egypt has been seen as a clear show of support for Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Since touching down on Thursday, Salman and his delegation have announced a slew of investments in Egypt.

A live Egyptian state television broadcast on Saturday showed an official announcing the latest agreements, signed by a representative of each country.

The two nations agreed "to set up a Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of 60 billion Saudi riyals ($16 billion)," the announcer said, giving no further details.

More than a dozen other accords, including a memorandum of understanding to set up an industrial zone in Egypt, were also announced.

Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement was viewed by Riyadh with suspicion.

It has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt.

Egyptian officials and media have heaped accolades on Salman, with state television welcoming him to what it called his "second country" -- a country Riyadh views as a cornerstone in its ambitions to be a regional leader against Iran.

In this picture taken Friday, April 8, 2016, provided by the office of the Egyptian 

Presidency, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, sits with Saudi Arabia's 

King Salman in Cairo, surrounded by delegations from the two countries. Egypt 

welcomed Saudi Arabia's monarch on a landmark visit to the Arab world's most populous

 country on Thursday, with Cairo seeking to boost ties and garner deals to prop up the 

nation's shaky economy despite some persistent divisions with the Sunni powerhouse. 

(Mohamed Samaha, Egyptian Presidency via AP)

Maritime borders

But the agreement announced by the cabinet on Saturday to settle the dispute over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir provoked an immediate backlash in Egypt, where thousands tweeted a hashtag accusing Sisi of selling the islands.

Tiran had historically been a Saudi island 'leased' to Egypt in 1950.

Earlier on Saturday, Salman paid a visit to the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque.

He is due to address parliament on Sunday and receive an honorary doctorate from Cairo University on Monday.

An Egyptian government official had said the deals agreed with Saudi Arabia, excluding the investment fund, would amount to $1.7 billion.

On Friday, both leaders lavished praise on each other's countries and their relationship.

"This visit comes as a confirmation of the pledges of brotherhood and solidarity before the two brotherly countries," Sisi said in a televised speech.

The visit follows months of reports in Saudi and Egyptian newspapers of strained ties over Cairo's unwillingness to participate fully in Saudi-led military operations against Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen.

Egypt had announced it would back Saudi Arabia with ground troops if needed, but appears to have balked at the prospect of becoming mired in the conflict.

Sisi's close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who militarily backs Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad against Saudi-supported rebels, has reportedly also caused friction with Riyadh.

However, Saudi Arabia has played a key role in propping up Egypt's economy, whose vital tourism industry has been devastated by years of political turmoil and jihadist attacks.

For Saudi Arabia, which is in competition with regional rival Iran, keeping Egypt under its aegis is crucial.