S.African pair jailed for forcing black man into coffin

Yahoo – AFP, Maryke VERMAAK, October 27, 2017

Willem Oosthuizen, left, and Theo Jackson filmed themselves forcing a black
man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive (AFP Photo/WIKUS DE WET)

Middelburg (South Africa) (AFP) - A South African judge on Friday handed down jail terms of 19 and 16 years to two white farmers who filmed themselves forcing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive.

Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Martins Jackson, who both shifted nervously in the dock, laid their heads on the bench after their sentencing while female family members wept in the public gallery.

"The conduct of the accused was most dehumanising and disgusting," said judge Segopotje Mphahlele, handing down sentence in the High Court sitting in Middelburg, 165 kilometres (100 miles) east of Johannesburg.

They had pleaded not guilty over the incident last year in the eastern province of Mpumalanga, saying they only intended to scare Victor Mlotshwa whom they accused of stealing copper cables from their farm.

They were convicted on August 25 of attempted murder as well as kidnap, intimidation and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Oosthuizen, 29, was sentenced to a 16-year term with five years suspended, while Jackson, 30, was jailed for 19 years, with five also suspended.

"The most appalling act of the accused was to put the complainant in a coffin against his will," said Mphahlele.

"Whilst in the coffin they threatened to set it alight. They asked him how he wanted to die -- quickly or slowly."

The judge said it was not the first time that the men had forced someone into a coffin against their will, saying their behaviour "raised and fuelled racial tension" in South Africa.

'Lack of remorse'

The judge ruled that the convicted men could not appeal the sentence following a bid by their legal team.

A lawyer for the men, Wayne Gibbs, called the jail terms "shockingly inappropriate," arguing that they were a result of intense media attention and public pressure.

Two clips of footage taken on their mobile phones showed the assailants shoving Mlotshwa down into the wooden coffin and pressing the lid closed with their boots as he begged for mercy.

Victor Mlotshwa, pictured on Monday, begged for mercy as the two farmers

thrust him into a coffin and threatened to set it on fire (AFP Photo/WIKUS DE WET)

When the first phone footage emerged several months ago, it triggered national outrage and led to the arrest of the two men.

"Please don't kill me," Mlotshwa begged the men while in the coffin, the footage showed.

"Why shouldn't we, when you are killing our farm?" one of the convicted men replied.

Throughout the case, the men denied that their actions had caused the victim to fear for his life.

"The evidence of the accused and the conduct of the accused during their trial clearly displays a lack of remorse," said Mphahlele.

Mlotshwa was in court to hear the sentences against the two men, who had alleged that he had threatened to kill their families and burn farm crops before being forced into the coffin.

He said he was simply walking to the town of Middelburg to buy provisions for his mother and had decided to use a short cut when the two men spotted him.

On the phone footage, which was shown in court during the trial, one of the men said "Come, come. We want to throw the petrol on".

They are also seen threatening to put a snake in the coffin.

Mlotshwa, who sat in court directly behind the families of the convicted men, smiled following the sentencing.

Members of rival political parties -- including ruling African National Congress -- celebrated inside the courtroom and outside, where some activists held up a cardboard coffin to protest against the crime.

Others brandished placards emblazoned with slogans calling for lengthy sentences for the accused and for better treatment of labourers.

South Africa is beset by deep-rooted racial inequality 23 years after the end of white-minority rule and racist incidents regularly erupt on social media.

WHO chief 'rethinking' after Mugabe honour outrage

Yahoo – AFP, Ben Simon, October 21, 2017

WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had praised Zimbabwe's health
coverage -- but announced a rethink after critics observed its president tends to get
 his treatment abroad (AFP Photo/MIGUEL ROJO)

Geneva (AFP) - The head of the World Health Organization said Saturday that he was "rethinking" his decision to name Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe a goodwill ambassador, as global outrage over the move mounted.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the UN health agency, had this week asked Zimbabwe's 93-year-old authoritarian leader to serve in the role to help tackle non-communicable diseases like heart attacks, strokes and asthma across Africa.

The decision triggered confusion and anger among key WHO member states and activists who noted that Zimbabwe's healthcare system, like many of its public services, has collapsed under Mugabe's regime.

"I’m listening. I hear your concerns. Rethinking the approach in light of WHO values. I will issue a statement as soon as possible", Tedros, a former Ethiopian health minister, said on Twitter.

Tedros took charge of WHO in July, becoming the first African to lead the powerful UN agency.

In announcing the appointment in Uruguay's capital this week, Tedros had praised Zimbabwe as "a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies to provide health care to all."

'Sickening'

Britain on Saturday joined the widening chorus of critics, calling the decision "surprising and disappointing, particularly in light of the current US and EU sanctions against him."

"We have registered our concerns with WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus," a foreign office spokesperson said in an email.

"Although President Mugabe will not have an executive role, his appointment risks overshadowing the work undertaken globally by the WHO on Non-Communicable Diseases", the spokesperson added.

Zimbabwean activist and human rights lawyer Doug Coltart said on Twitter that a "man who flies to Singapore for treatment because he has destroyed Zimbabwe's health sector is WHO's goodwill ambassador."

Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, is in increasingly fragile health and makes regular trips abroad for medical treatment.

"Mugabe doesn’t trust Zimbabwe health care he destroyed (he travels abroad) but @WHO’s Tedros names him ambassador", the head of Human Rights Watch, Ken Roth, added in a tweet.

UN Watch, a group primarily known for defending Israel at the world body, called the decision "sickening."

"Amid reports of ongoing human rights abuses, the tyrant of Zimbabwe is the last person who should be legitimized by a UN position of any kind," the group's executive director Hillel Neuer said in a statement.

WHO had earlier on Saturday pointed to Zimbabwe's record on tobacco, NCDs and Tedro's desire to engage senior politicians as justifications for the Mugabe honour.

"Dr. Tedros has frequently talked of his determination to build a global movement to promote high level political leadership for health," spokesman Christian Lindmeier said in an email.

"Zimbabwe has ratified the WHO FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) in 2014 and the government has launched a levy fund for NCDs to generate revenues for health promotion, including NCD prevention and control," he added.

UN agencies often name high profile personalities as goodwill ambassadors to draw attention to their work, including actress Angelina Jolie with the refugee agency UNHCR.

The naming of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador for the 

World Health Organization has triggered widespread outrage (AFP Photo/Phill Magakoe)

Related Articles:

WHO chief rescinds Mugabe ambassador role after outcry - New

"Dual Channeling" + "Unexpected Change" (4) - Mar 18 - 19, 2017 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version "Change")

"...Light and Dark Balance

The light and dark balance on the planet is starting to rearrange itself and is going to create more wild cards. Wild cards are "unexpected shifts", things that are often shocking in ways that are not positive or negative, but rather are changes in the paradigm of what was. They often push the future, both in consciousness and science.

There are several coming in the form of Human Beings making changes in ways and in places you don't expect. There's one that is way overdue in New York City at the United Nations. It's an old organization with wonderful ideas about helping the planet, but stuck in its own old-energy politics. What will happen there? If you don't see much soon, it may actually cease functioning. Wildcards are not guaranteed. They are timed to match the free choice of those around them. That's what makes a wild card - totally unexpected events. Think of this: An organization set out to create peace on Earth may become more dysfunctional and even fail, or a wild card may come and restructure it all at great controversy and almost no funding. That's what wild cards do.

You may find it in business, in banking or in politics. New ideas never tried before that are radical may exist soon. Expect these kinds of things, but they have to grow on you. There may be some starts and stops. There may be seed planters who don't make it. Then others may come in and make the seeds start growing. That means ideas that were not accepted yesterday may actually be accepted now or in the future. This is because as you evolve, you will see the new wisdom in them. This is all part of the growth process through time.

So this is where you are currently in the change pattern. You are at the beginning of the growth process. All this with a new grid, with very few time fractals to undo, and with a clean slate from historic energies. Are you ready?

Listen: No prophecy at all has been written about what is happening on your planet now. Zero. There are no elders anywhere or channellers anywhere at the moment giving you good, solid prophecy about what's next. This is because you just went through the tunnel of old energy, the old prophecies, and are barely free of them. This is a new energy that you have never experienced before on the planet. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the prophecies.

According to the best and most popular and accepted prophecies of your time, where are you supposed to be right now? The answer is "dead".

Where is the earth supposed to be right now? The answer is "radioactive". No one can exist on a planet that has had a massive nuclear exchange, no matter what your movies say. It's "goodbye" to Humans on the planet. The whole idea of a post-apocalyptic earth is a fantasy. You don't live when there's that much radiation. It affects everything in the air, in the oceans and the very dust that would have been kicked up by thousands of nuclear explosions would be circling the planet and blocking the sun for decades. Dark - life gone.

Dear one, that is the apocalypse that never took place. Instead, you stand here with your kids and a new planet with hope. You may wonder why I'm enamored with all of you, but you don't really know it, not yet.

In a generation or two, somebody will raise a hand and say, "I couldn't help but notice we're different from those before." This is how long it takes, especially to rewrite the old consciousness of expected doom. Two generations may have to go by before someone raises a hand to say, "Look, the sun's coming out [a metaphor]. It's different." Humans are slow to change, but they may notice attitudes changing and that they have a new road to walk on.

So you want to know what your task is at the moment, dear old soul? Your task is to encourage those around you using your compassion and balance. When you hear them talk about the fact that they cannot get ahead, or that things are horrible on the planet, or what the news said last night, speak up in a loving way. When timed correctly. you can say, "I'm really not onboard with that. I feel we have a positive time ahead. Things are different. Can't you feel it, can't you see it? I think we've got a brighter future. We just need to be patient with it and stop wallowing in the drama others are giving us that influences us and makes us fear everything."   .."

Morocco prepares to test 'fastest train in Africa'

Yahoo – AFP, October 10, 2017

A locomotive for Morocco's first high speed rail link, produced by French train maker
Alstom, arrives at the Moroccan port of Tangier on June 30, 2015 (AFP Photo/STR)

Rabat (AFP) - Engineers in Morocco are preparing to test Africa's first high-speed railway this week with trains reaching 320 kilometres (200 miles) per hour, the country's rail office said Monday.

One train reached 275 kph (170 mph) on Monday along a stretch of track between the northern cities of Kenitra and Tangiers, the ONCF said.

"This is already the fastest train on the African continent," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was in Morocco to sign a loan deal between the ONCF and the French Development Agency.

He said the railway was "emblematic of the Franco-Moroccan bilateral relationship".

The link between Casablanca and Tangiers via the capital Rabat will slash journey times between the North African country's economic hubs by almost two thirds, to just over two hours.

Morocco's TGV, which gets its name from the French abbreviation for high-speed trains, is set to enter service in summer 2018.

The total cost of the project, 50 percent financed by France through various loans, is around $2.4 billion (2 billion euros).

It is set to go around 15 percent over budget, according to figures released on Monday.

But ONCF head Rabii Lakhlii said the project had cost "less than 9 million euros per kilometre, compared to a European standard of 20 million euros per kilometre".

The route, made more complex by hilly terrain and strong winds, required the building of several viaducts including one some 3.5 kilometres long.

The ONCF is targeting six million travellers a year after three years of operations.

Lakhlii said tickets would cost about 30 percent more than those for the current rail link.

Moroccan leaders have heralded the project as a key step in modernising the country's infrastructure.

But opponents have criticised it, saying the money could have been better spent in a country where many live in poverty.

They also argue that it unfairly favoured French companies.