Xi thanks nation’s teachers, stresses role of education

NAN-F-7
Education
Beijing, Sept. 9, 2016 (Xinhua/NAN)  To mark China’s 32nd Teachers’ Day, which falls on Sept. 10 every year, President Xi Jinping on Friday took a trip down memory lane and visited his old school.

He took the opportunity of Teachers’ Day to extend his appreciation to the country’s educators for their diligence and commitment.

Xi attended Beijing Bayi School, Haidian District, during his elementary and junior high school years. During his visit he commented on the school’s dynamic, inspirational environment and remarked on the many positive changes since his time as a student.

Education determines our lives today, and our future, he said, adding that educational reform will play a fundamental and guiding role in China’s wider development story.

During his visit, Xi was shown the library and viewed exhibitions on the school’s history and defense education.

The school also shared some archive photographs taken of Xi when he was a student. He said he cherished these formative years and remembered his lessons and fellow students fondly.

As one of Beijing’s renowned schools, Bayi places a lot of focus on the sciences as a gateway to encouraging creativity and imagination.

Xi said children must be equipped with the fundamental skills of creative thinking and practical ability.

The president also talked with a group of pupils who were playing football and posed for photos with them. An avid supporter of soccer in education, Xi encouraged the students to aspire to be excellent soccer players.

While touring some of the school’s older buildings, he also met with some of his former teachers, and he took the opportunity to thank them for all they did for him and wished them happy, healthy lives.

Xi also talked with faculty members and students about school management, education and their dreams and aspirations.

The importance of knowledge and talent cannot be underestimated, Xi said, and education must continue to be improved.

Moreover, he said, the teaching of ideology, ethics and socialist core values should be reinforced so that students leave the education system as confident, dignified, independent members of society.

The benefits of development in education must be made available to all Chinese, he added.

To this end, he pledged greater support across the whole education system, from kindergarten to high school.

The distribution of resources should be optimized so that there is no difference in education quality between schools in cities and rural areas.

Funding in revolutionary bases, ethnic, remote and impoverished areas needs to be increased and education should be part of the ongoing poverty-relief campaign.

“We must stop poverty from being passed on to future generations. Every child should be confident in themselves and their future,” he said.

Xi called on teachers to instill in their students a love of the motherland, the people, and the Communist Party of China.

Meanwhile, Party committees and governments at all levels should create suitable conditions so that teachers are “content and enthusiastic,” Xi said.

Elementary and high school students are the future of China, Xi said.

Students should strive to be a person of “pure heart, sound personality, and integrity,” and “educated, compassionate and ready to take on responsibilities,” Xi said.

Xi urged Party committees and governments at all levels to make education a priority, and deepen educational reforms. (Xinhua/NAN)

Edited by Julius Enehikhuere
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NAN-H-50
UNGA
By Aregbesola Isaac

Abuja, Sept. 9, 2016 (NAN) President Muhammadu Buhari will lead Nigeria’s delegates to the 71^st  UN  General Assembly (UNGA) scheduled to begin at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, has said.

Onyeama, who made the fact known in Abuja on Friday at a news conference, said the president would be discussing series of issues which had direct impact on Nigeria.

He said the president would, among others, set the record straight on the issue of human rights violation and  sign the Paris Agreement on Climate.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21) held in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal.

The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to 2°C.

The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020.

Onyeama said that the president signing the agreement  would send a signal to the world that Nigeria was serious with it and noted that China and the U.S. had already signed it.

He said that the UNGA conference was a unique one where Mr President had opportunity to meet world leaders and build on the country’s reputation.

“It is one unique conference where world leaders assemble and address issues pre-occupying their minds, it is a wonderful opportunity for the president to build on his reputation.

“President Buhari is well regarded by the world leaders and it will give him opportunity to reconnect and engage them on various issues.

“He needs world leaders’ support in the areas of economy, security, anti-corruption and governance. He will use the opportunity to push for Nigeria’s interest at the UN,” the minister said.

He said that the president would also use the opportunity to look for foreign markets for Nigerian’s products and garner support for the economy.

Onyeama said that the president would also use the opportunity to canvass for the repatriation of Nigeria’s  stolen money in foreign banks.

“Mr President will use the opportunity to canvass for support for the recharge of Lake Chad.

“` There will be a discussion on Lake Chad Basin and how to recharge the lake through Central Africa which will cost about 15 billion dollars.

“Mr President will engage and push for investors on the project. He will be looking at Public, Private Partnership to mobilise that kind of funding for Lake Chad.

“Such investment will have direct impact on at least five million people,” he said.

According to Onyeama, there will also be a discussion on one vision, one Africa where all African nations can  have a voice on issues that have direct impact on the continent.

He said the EU would be putting 31 billion euros on the table to address certain issues affecting Middle East and part of Africa.

He said that Nigeria was the only one invited for the meeting to look into how to spend the money, adding that the forum would give Nigeria opportunity to access the fund. (NAN)

IAA/DE/JCE

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(Edited by Dorcas Jonah/ Chukwudi Ekezie)

U.S. remembers Sept 11, calls for commitment against terrorism

NAN-H-49
Terrorism
By Aregbesola Isaac
Abuja, Sept. 9, 2016 (NAN) As Americans marks the 15th anniversary of one of the most tragic days in their history, U.S. has called on other nations around the world to renew commitment against terrorism.

A statement from the information Unit of the U.S. Embassy on Friday, called for strategic efforts to defeat terrorism and promote peace across the universe.

“On that faithful day, terrorists staged attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and were only prevented from completing another attack by the heroism of the passengers on United Flight 93.

“We recall the events 15 years ago; let us renew our commitment to do all that we can, wherever we may be, to honour the victims of those attacks.

“As well as the others who have been harmed by terrorism in the years since September 11, 2001.We must defeat terrorists and all that they represent.

“And at the same time, work tirelessly to promote dialogue, peace, and reconciliation in order to resolve the complex problems that we face in an interdependent world,” it stated.

It noted with concern that tragic events throughout the world have shown the ongoing horrific impact of terrorism in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, France, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Belgium, among many other countries.

According to the statement, far too many families around the globe have experienced pain and loss as a result of terrorism.

“It is clear that we all must stand together and work to defeat this scourge,” it stated. (NAN)

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UN says U.S.-Russia talks on Syria crucial as aid stops rolling in

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Aid
Geneva, Sept. 9, 2016 (Reuters /NAN) The Syrian government has effectively stopped aid convoys this month and the besieged city of Aleppo is close to running out of fuel, making U.S.-Russian peace talks in Geneva on Friday even more urgent, the United Nations  has said.

“Convoys are not rolling at the moment in Syria,” the U.N. humanitarian chief told reporters in Geneva, although an air bridge to the Kurdish-controlled northeastern city of Hasaka has continued operating, and there have been a handful of evacuations from the besieged towns of Foua and Madaya.

Syria’s government vets UN aid plans on a monthly basis, and its late and partial approval of the programme for this month meant no aid had yet gone in, Stephen O’Brien said.

“We are on Sept 9, and the supplies under the September plan have not yet started.”

As he spoke, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were meeting nearby for a third time in as many weeks to clinch a nationwide ceasefire deal.

UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, with de O’Brien, said the talks were “addressing complex, delicate and difficult issues. “The conclusions could make, lets’s be frank, a major difference,” he said.

Helping around 250,000 people besieged in eastern Aleppo, where a battle for control has escalated in the past month, was becoming urgent, he said.

“There is a growing concern about eastern Aleppo: the issue about food, the issue about the possibility that within perhaps the next few days it will turn out to be dark because there is no fuel, problems of water.”

Opposition groups say Russia, which co-sponsors the U.N. peace process, is part of the problem and not the solution, because it has provided strong air support for fighters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We ask any party which has influence on any of the warring parties to ensure that they recognize that the demand for humanitarian access is paramount and rises above all the other vested interests,” O’Brien said. (Reuters/NAN)

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Dozens held as teachers protest suspensions in Turkey’s southeast, union says

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Protest
Turkey, Sept. 9, 2016 (Reuters/NAN) Turkish police detained dozens of people and used water cannon on Friday to disperse several hundred teachers demonstrating against their suspension from classrooms in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, union sources said Friday.

Brawls erupted and police pushed back crowds chanting “shoulder to shoulder against fascism” after Turkish authorities suspended more than 11,000 teachers on Thursday over alleged links with the Kurdish militants.

A further 418 teachers were also suspended from duty in the predominantly Kurdish eastern province of Tunceli on Friday. Several hundred teachers gathered in front of the education ministry’s provincial building to protest.

“This is an attack on our unionised struggle,” Suleyman Guler, the provincial head of the education union, Egitim-Sen, told journalists. Guler was also suspended from work.

“It is not possible to accept this decision. There is neither a crime here nor a criminal. We call for the immediate halt of this move,” he said.

The suspensions were part of the government’s campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

It comes as Ankara also pushes ahead with a purge of tens of thousands of supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of orchestrating an attempted coup in July.

Gulen denies any involvement.

The scope of that crackdown has raised concern among rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the failed coup as pretext to curtail dissent.

The anti-PKK campaign is Turkey’s largest ever against the group, and the removal of civil servants linked to the PKK is a key part of the fight, Erdogan said on Thursday.

Demonstrations have been banned across Diyarbakir province since mid-August during the state of emergency declared after the failed coup.

On Friday, the Diyarbakir governor’s office also imposed a curfew in more than a dozen neighbourhoods across three districts, as security operations were planned against Kurdish militants in the region. (Reuters/ NAN)

Edited by Julius Enehikhuere
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France says Gabon’s constitutional court must be transparent, impartial over election results

NAN-F-4
Election
Paris, Sept. 9, 2016, (Reuters/ NAN) Gabon’s constitutional court must examine the opposition’s challenge to the presidential election with transparency and impartiality, France’s foreign minister said on Friday.

“France continues to follow carefully developments in Gabon,” Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement.

“The constitutional court has been asked to examine the provisional presidential results.

“It must examine these with transparency and impartiality and all means must be put in place to ensure the respect of its principles and establishment of the sincerity of the vote,” he added. (Reuters/ NAN)
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North Korea conducts fifth and largest nuclear test, drawing broad condemnation

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Test
Seoul, Sept. 9, 2016 (Reuters/ NAN) North Korea conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Friday and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.

The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea’s founding, was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to some estimates, and drew condemnation from the United States as well as China, Pyongyang’s main ally.

Diplomats said the United Nations Security Council would discuss the test at a closed-door meeting on Friday, at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Kim Jong Un, North Korea leader, has accelerated the development of its nuclear and missile programmes, despite U.N. sanctions that were tightened in March and have further isolated the impoverished country.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, in Laos after a summit of Asian leaders, said Kim was showing “maniacal recklessness” in completely ignoring the world’s call to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama, aboard Air Force One on his way home from Laos, said the test would be met with “serious consequences”, and held talks with Park and with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the White House said.

China said it was resolutely opposed to the test and urged Pyongyang to stop taking any actions that would worsen the situation. It said it would lodge a protest with the North Korean embassy in Beijing.

There were further robust condemnations from Russia, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain.

North Korea, which labels the South and the United States as its main enemies, said its “scientists and technicians carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead,” according to its official KCNA news agency.

It said the test proved North Korea was capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on a medium-range ballistic missile, which it last tested on Monday when Obama and other world leaders were gathered in China for a G20 summit.

Pyongyang’s claims of being able to miniaturise a nuclear warhead have never been independently verified.

Its continued testing in defiance of sanctions presents a challenge to Obama in the final months of his presidency and could become a factor in the U.S. presidential election in November, and a headache to be inherited by whoever wins.

“Sanctions have already been imposed on almost everything possible, so the policy is at an impasse,” said Tadashi Kimiya, a University of Tokyo professor specialising in Korean issues.

“In reality, the means by which the United States, South Korea and Japan can put pressure on North Korea have reached their limits,” he said. (Reuters/ NAN)

Edited by  Julius Enehikhuere
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