Acts Of Heroism Emerge In Chaos Of Las Vegas Shooting

Pastor William McCurdy holds a candle during a prayer vigil in honor of those affected by the shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, in front of Las Vegas City Hall in Las Vegas, Monday, Oct. 2, 2017. The vigil was held in honor of the over 50 people killed and hundreds injured in a mass shooting at an outdoor music concert late Sunday. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

LAS VEGAS (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Rob Ledbetter's battlefield instincts kicked in quickly as bullets rained overhead. The 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served as a sniper in Iraq immediately began tending to the wounded, one of several heroes to emerge from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Amid the massacre in Las Vegas, which left 59 people dead and more than 500 injured, there were acts of compassion and countless heroics that officials say saved scores of lives.

There was a man one survivor knows only as Zach who herded people to a safe place. There was a registered nurse from Tennessee who died shielding his wife. Like many people in the crowd of some 22,000 country music fans Sunday night, Ledbetter heard the pop-pop-popping noise and figured it was fireworks. Then he saw people dropping to the ground. When more booms echoed in the night air, he recognized the sound of automatic weapons fire.

The gunman, identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant from Mesquite, Nevada, created his own sniper's perch inside the 32nd floor room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel, across from the concert grounds. He appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes, according to radio traffic, and then killed himself before officers stormed in and found 23 firearms.

"The echo, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere and you didn't know which way to run," said Ledbetter, who was at the concert with seven people including his brother, who was shot and injured, and his wife. They found cover in a VIP area of the concert. Once out of harm's way, he turned to injured strangers.

Thanks to a man who took the flannel shirt off his back, Ledbetter says he put a makeshift tourniquet on a wounded teenage girl, whose face was covered with blood. "Some random guy, I said, 'I need your shirt,' "said Ledbetter, who is now a mortgage broker and a resident of Las Vegas. "He just gave me the flannel off his back."

Ledbetter said he compressed someone else's shoulder wound, and he fashioned a bandage for a man whose leg was shot through by a bullet. "There was a guy that looked like he had a through and through on his leg, that we just put a T-shirt around and just did a bandanna tie," said Ledbetter, who was outside University Medical Center on Monday, where his brother was being treated for a gunshot that went through his arm and into his chest. He is expected to survive.

Ledbetter and others grabbed the injured man, carried him out to Las Vegas Boulevard, put him in the back of a utility truck with five to 10 other people that was headed to the hospital. Ledbetter said he would have helped more people but couldn't clear the barrage of gunfire.

"I'm saving people, or trying to do my best. But it got to the point, I saw people all over, laying where we used to be standing ... just laying there and nobody getting to them and I couldn't get out there. The shots just kept coming in and bouncing. I would have been in harm's way," he said.

He worries that those unfamiliar with battlefields will suffer what they have survived. "Everybody there is going to have emotional problems. I know that. There was blood everywhere I went: Excalibur, Luxor, on the Strip, on the street," Ledbetter said. "All these people are going to have PTSD. I feel bad for all of them."

Another concertgoer, Anna Kupchyan, credits a man she knows only as Zach for saving her life and about nine others when he herded them into an outdoor trailer serving as a restroom. Kupchyan, a 27-year-old law student from Los Angeles, said bullets were raining down on the crowd as she and a horde of others began running in search of a way out of the outdoor venue.

The man, Zach, opened a door and ordered people inside and then joined them and shut the door, Kupchyan said. They stayed inside as the shooting continued, everyone paralyzed in fear, she said. "Then security came and they shouted for us to get out, to run," she recalled. Outside the trailer, dead bodies were sprawled on the ground, including a man who had been shot in the head, she said.

She and her best friend Leslie Aguilar, a 26-year-old therapist, eventually jumped in a cab that was driving by and befriended two other women survivors who let them stay in their hotel room until the danger subsided.

Not all of Sunday night's heroes survived. Sonny Melton, a registered nurse, died in the shooting, according to The Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tennessee, where he worked. His wife, Dr. Heather Melton, an orthopedic surgeon who was with him when shots were fired, survived.

She told WZTV in Nashville, Tennessee, that her husband "saved my life and lost his." She said her husband was the most kind-hearted, loving man she ever met.

Associated Press Writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Anita Snow in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

James Cabrera sits at a slot machine in the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, Nev., Monday, Oct 2, 2017. Cabrera and his wife, Sonia Pena, drove to Las Vegas from La Habra, Calif., overnight after their 21-year-old daughter Jessica called them from the music festival. Jessica yelled, "They're shooting at us. People are falling, I love you!," Cabrera recalled. Later they learned their daughter escaped unharmed and hid in a bathroom overnight at the MGM hotel until morning.

Cameroon's English-Speakers Call For Independence

Ambazonia Flag Via You-Tube

Cameroon's government has banned public gatherings, suspended transportation and shut businesses in the country's English-speaking regions as activists symbolically declared independence from the majority French-speaking areas.

Tensions continue to run high in towns and cities in Cameroon's northwest and southwestern regions country with thousands of security forces said to be patrolling the streets in a bid to quell planned demonstrations against President Paul Biya's administration.

"Today, we reaffirm our autonomy over our heritage and over our territory," the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF) said in a statement on Facebook.

The government has said the move carries no legal weight.

The declaration and protests come on the anniversary of South Cameroon's independence from Britian in 1961.

Christopher Njong, information officer with the the governing council of Southern Cameroons, also known as Ambazonia, told Al Jazeera earlier on Sunday that people were gathering to march in the town of Bamenda, but were facing "major resistance from the army and police".

"They [authorities] are doing everything to stop people from marching, because they don't want the world to see our call for independence," he said.

Njong added that people were attempting to march in the towns of Buea and Kumbo with white and blue flags (the flag of the country they would name Ambazonia) and placards, but were facing similar resistance from authorities.

English-speaking Cameroonians make up one-fifth of Cameroon's population of 22 million. They have long accused the central government of discriminating against their community, arguing that they are excluded from employment and forced to speak French in business and official affairs, despite English being one of the country's official languages.

They also argue that oil, found in the southwestern region, has been used to the benefit of the state and not the region in which the resources are found.

But the discontent goes much deeper.

Southern Cameroons joined Cameroon in 1961 through a referendum, but pro-independence groups argue that UN resolution 1608 that set the terms of an unification plan was never properly followed. Additionally, in 1972, when the country moved from a federalist system to a centralised system, with power resting firmly in the capital, Yaounde, those from the Anglophone regions said they suffered further neglect.

As a result, many Anglophones contend that the French-speaking majority annexed Southern Cameroon.

"They have turned us into servants in our own house," Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, president of the movement for the independence of Southern Cameroons, said earlier this month.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon's communication minister, told Al Jazeera that there would be no amputation or division of Cameroon.

"This division will never happen," Bakary, speaking from Yaounde, said.

In response to allegations that the central government have deployed a disproportionate number of military to the region, Bakary said that "necessary measures had been taken to look after people and property, and to ensure people are not bullied".

"We deployed to prevent violence; their [the protesters] aim is to provoke violence, this is why we sent them [the army] there."

The minister would not say how many troops were sent, but rejected allegations that internet services had been slowed despite numerous suggestions that people were struggling to access social media.

Dissent in the two regions have been growing over the past year, with protests taking place intermittently.

Six people have been killed and hundreds have been arrested and detained as the government looked to crack down on what they see as a secessionist movement.

Earlier this year, the internet was shut down in the two English-speaking regions for more than three months.

Many students and teachers in the two regions have also boycotted schools and banks have been closed, leaving in its wake empty towns, which activists have dubbed "ghost town" protests.

Rising dissent comes as Cameroon's government faces a wave of criticism by rights groups over what they call the government's growing authoritarian tendencies. They point to the imprisonment of journalists and those who are critical of Biya or his administration.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in September that the government was using an anti-terror law to quell dissent.

Ayuk Patrick, the secretary-general of SCACUF, a movement calling for independence for the two regions, said that people would be marching worldwide on Sunday for "the restoration of our nation state".

He also denied government claims that secessionists were armed and disruptive.

"Our people are being called to march peacefully. We don't have armed groups. Instead, we have a three- throng approach: First, we are litigating the regime, second, we are exercising our right to civil disobedience and the third thing is diplomacy," Patrick told Al Jazeera ahead of the planned march in Johannesburg, South Africa.

"We have a right to self-defence. But we are not attacking the government."

----- Al Jazeera October 2, 2017

The Latin Mass, Thriving In Southeastern Nigeria

BY MATHEW SCHMITZ

Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady August 15, 2017 the Ordination of Rev. Fr Charles Ike by Bishop Gregory Ochiagha at the FSSP's Apostolate, Umuaka, Njaba-Imo State, Nigeria. Image Via FSSP.

UMUAKA, (NJABA-IMO STATE), NIGERIA (THE NEW YORK TIMES) — In August, under a bright blue sky and in front of 2,500 worshipers, Bishop Gregory Ochiagha performed the first traditional Latin ordination in Nigeria since the vernacular liturgy was introduced after Vatican II in the 1960s. Near the end of the Mass, the 86-year-old bishop nearly fainted. “I am so happy, I am so happy,” he whispered as he was led to a chair.

Catholics attached to the Latin Mass have suffered a great deal since the introduction of the vernacular liturgy after Vatican II. But 10 years ago, they enjoyed a sublime vindication. Pope Benedict XVI declared in his document “Summorum Pontificum” that all Catholics have the right to the traditional liturgy. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too,” Benedict wrote. Bishop Ochiagha generously distributed copies of “Summorum” to his brother bishops in Nigeria, many of whom had criticized his support for the Latin Mass.

Though traditionalists remain a tiny minority in Nigeria, as throughout the world, their number is growing. Catholic traditionalists see the ancient language of the Latin Mass as a sign of their faith’s stability and unity, an indication that Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. They would like to see it return worldwide, but for now, some of its strongest adherents have been in places like Nigeria, where historical tumult and ethnic strife have given traditionalists special reason to value this aspect of their faith. Six years ago, Bishop Ochiagha buried his friend Emeka Ojukwu, who had led the Biafran Republic in its rebellion against the Nigerian state. Bishop Ochiagha served Biafra as a diplomat and watched the rape and pillage that accompanied its defeat in 1970.

At that fraught moment, foreign priests were expelled from Nigeria by the government, and the vernacular liturgy was introduced by the Vatican. “The time of the liturgical change was not easy,” Bishop Ochiagha told me. “People thought the church was collapsing.” In one stroke, Catholics were cut off from their past. They also found it harder to pray. “The traditional Mass encourages reflection and prayer,” he said. “The new Mass gives itself to jamboree.”

So when one of Bishop Ochiagha’s priests asked permission in the 1990s to celebrate the Latin Mass again in Nigeria, the bishop agreed. The priest, the Rev. Evaristus Eshiowu, had studied in Los Angeles, where he was shocked by what he saw as the irreverence of American worship. He felt called by the Virgin Mary to revive a liturgy in which her son would be rightly honored. Returning to Nigeria, he began monthly recitations of 2,000 Rosaries, marathon prayer sessions that stretched from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. and ended with the Latin Mass.

Traditional Catholicism is sometimes considered superstitious for the stress it places on formal devotions like the Rosary and meatless Fridays, but history shows that such practices are what have made the faith appealing to all nations and classes. When bishops began to discard traditional devotions at the time of Vatican II, the British anthropologist Mary Douglas accused them of turning the faith into an airy set of bourgeois ethical commitments. Liturgical change was a kind of class war. Available statistics bear her argument out: In the United States, Mass attendance remained stable among rich Catholics when the Latin Mass was abandoned, but dipped among the poor.

It is amazing that the leaders of a ritual faith imagined that they could dispense with traditional forms of prayer. Among the few elites who saw the folly of this project, most were artists, naturally alert to the way supposedly superficial things can in fact be essential. In a 1971 letter to Pope Paul VI, artists of all faiths and no faith — figures as varied as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Graham Greene and Agatha Christie — protested that the Latin Mass was a living work of art, belonging “to universal culture as well as to churchmen.”

Evelyn Waugh, a Catholic, realized that these external changes were connected with essential matters. “More than the aesthetic changes which rob the church of poetry, mystery and dignity,” he wrote, “there are suggested changes in faith and morals which alarm me.”

In “Summorum Pontificum,” Benedict noted that the church’s traditional liturgy introduced the barbarian nations of Europe not only to the Catholic faith but also to “the treasures of worship and culture amassed by the Romans.” It has a kind of “romanitas” that complements traditional cultures of all kinds.

This idea appeals to Edwin Mary Akaedu, a parishioner in this southeastern Nigerian town. He cites the parallels between the Latin Mass and the traditions of his Igbo tribe and views claims that the vernacular Mass can be more easily “inculturated” as misleading. “The idea of inculturation was not native,” he told me. “It was introduced. Like every Western fashion, it was quickly taken up by everyone.”

Mr. Akaedu said that at less traditional parishes he did not receive clear moral direction. “But here I was told: This is the right way to live, this is what God wants.”

Perpetua Iwuala, 16, told me the same thing: “The priests here tell you everything you need to know. They teach you the Commandments. At other parishes they don’t.”

Among the worshipers going up for communion in bright home-sewn garments printed with images of Mary and the saints, one boy stands out. He wears a gray T-shirt that reads, “Clan McLean Reunion, Fredericksburg, Va., 1997.” It is probably a cast-off, discarded by others but taken up here — just like the Latin Mass. When the liturgy is ended, children run around the churchyard crying out to each other: “Sixtus! Perpetua! Felicitas!” It could be a roll call of old Roman worthies. When a priest from a neighboring parish criticizes the traditional liturgy, a girl exclaims, “Father is a modernist!”

Catholics elsewhere have largely dispensed with condemnations of modernism, along with the Latin Mass. There is something biblical in the way these things have found new life in Nigeria. Just as Jacob displaces Esau, so one nation outpaces another in devotion. For this to work, one must have the humility to accept an inheritance. Christianity is a hand-me-down affair. It bears the marks of those who came before.

Shortly after his conversion to Catholicism, Evelyn Waugh wrote a story about a visitor to London who is cast 500 years into the future, when the city is reduced to a cluster of huts. The English inhabitants are illiterate savages who cower as colonizers from Africa motor up and down the Thames. The traveler is disoriented, until his eyes fall on something he knows. “Out of strangeness, there had come into being something familiar; a shape in chaos.” An African priest is saying the Latin Mass.

Despite centuries of reversal and tumult, something “new and yet ageless” remained. When the Latin Mass was suppressed at the end of Waugh’s life, his youthful vision of it being said forever seemed like folly. If it seems likelier today, it is due in part to people like Bishop Ochiagha and the worshippers here who have preserved an inheritance rejected by others. Against all odds, the body of Christ remains “a shape in chaos,” marked but unbroken by the passing of time.

Deadly West Nile Virus Cases Are Spiking In LA. The First Line Of Defense: Chickens

BY USHA LEE MCFARLING

PBS/STAT

Image Via Tour D'Coup

EL MONTE, CALIF.  — The chickens are used to the needles.

They don’t fuss when vector ecologist Tanya Posey pulls opens the door of a coop in a community garden here, firmly grasps a Leghorn, and pulls a blood sample out of its wing vein. She’s so good, she can bleed a chicken in about 30 seconds.

That’s helpful, because she has a lot of chickens to test.

More than six dozen sentinel chickens, living in coops dotted around Los Angeles, make up one of the first lines of defense in this sprawling county’s fight against West Nile virus. The disease has been a background threat for years here, but cases have spiked this fall to worrisome levels. Six deaths have been reported by Los Angeles County this year — including three just last week.

And the cases are alarmingly severe: Of 98 reported infections here this year, 79 have led to serious neurological side effects, and 87 have required hospitalization. Because it’s still peak mosquito season, more deaths are expected.

So local public health officials this week launched an all-out attack. They’re sending teams of green-shirted vector control agents door to door to tell residents to wear bug spray, install window screens, and dump the stagnant water where the insects breed. They’re plastering the county with posters that read “It’s Not Just a Bite” and “No Es Solo Un Piquete.”

They’ve even created a rap video featuring a fetid swimming pool, a giant dancing mosquito, and teams of uniformed agents rapping, “You’ve got to dump the water out, drain the water flow, tip the water out, toss the water slow.”

On a national level, a duo from Johns Hopkins and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week petitioned for a new mosquito emoji, arguing that it could lend some buzz to public health efforts.

West Nile virus causes no symptoms in 8 of 10 infected people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But some, particularly the very young and very old, can get fevers, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms. (Dr. Lyle Petersen, the director of the CDC’s division of vector-borne diseases, experienced that misery himself back in 2003, when he was infected with West Nile virus after going out to pick up his mail without insect repellent.)

The virus has caused more than 2,000 deaths in the U.S. since it first appeared in New York in 1999. States hit hardest in recent years include California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and South Dakota. This year, 22 states have already reported 49 deaths and 658 of the most severe cases, known as “neuroinvasive,” which can involve meningitis, encephalitis, and paralysis.

But at least here in Southern California, residents don’t seem to be concerned.

“You can’t imagine how much outreach we’re doing, but it’s really hard to get people to pay attention,” said Kelly Middleton, who directs community affairs for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.

Some experts blame complacency, because West Nile is old news. Others blame the months of media coverage over the past year on Zika, another mosquito-borne virus that can cause grave birth defects when it infects pregnant women. Though there’s no evidence Zika is being transmitted by mosquitoes in Southern California, residents nonetheless seem focused on that — instead of the far more prevalent threat of West Nile.

“Certainly we all care about infants and birth defects, so Zika gets a lot of attention,” said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the county’s program for acute communicable disease control. “But West Nile causes more deaths than Zika does — and it causes them every year.”

To control West Nile virus, first you have to know where it’s lurking. It’s a monumental task for the district, which covers a territory of more than 1,340 square miles — roughly the size of Rhode Island.

The district has some 180 mosquito traps. Checking them all involves grueling drives five days a week by two field assistants.

But simply detecting virus inside mosquitoes doesn’t confirm that the insects are infectious. Finding infected birds does. The district collects and tests dead birds — crows and blue jays — when residents alert them, but such reports can be spotty.

So the district relies on its sentinel chickens, checking their blood for West Nile virus antibodies every two weeks.

On a recent day, Posey and her teammate Harold Morales checked a group of 10 white Leghorns — the iconic white chickens with bright red combs. (An attempt to use Rhode Island Reds failed miserably; the birds couldn’t handle the Southern California heat.) Seven of the chickens had already tested positive for West Nile, so Morales bled the three that hadn’t, dropping a few milliliters of blood onto filter papers he would later send to a state testing lab.

“It’s just like going to the doctor and getting a blood sample,” said Susanne Kluh, who heads disease surveillance for the district. “Some get feisty, but it’s pretty easy on the chickens.”

Wild birds don’t seem to mind the needles, either. Many that have been trapped for surveillance, banded, and released return repeatedly to the traps — where they can be tested again to see if they have immunity. “They give their blood and get free food,” Middleton said. “The same birds come back week after week.”

Unlike sparrows, finches, jays, and crows — which can die from West Nile and also transmit it to new mosquitoes — chickens don’t get sick or spread the virus. Indeed, the sentinel Longhorns are healthy enough that local gardeners gather their eggs and use their manure for fertilizer. Once testing season ends in late fall, the birds are given away — for pets or meat. “They’re good eating,” said Kluh.

And they’re good data generators, helping Kluh and colleagues generate a precise mapof where the virus is active. The district can then target outreach and abatement efforts.

Human cases are too slow to be useful for surveillance, she said, because people often don’t go to the doctor right away and doctors don’t always report cases. (Indeed, the number of actual West Nile deaths is likely higher than stated because of underreporting, public health officials say.)

An army of invading mosquitoes

Los Angeles County public health officials credit the vector control district with keeping the outbreak from being far worse. But for Kluh and her team, every West Nile death is difficult.

“It’s hard,” Kluh said. “We take it really personally.”

This month, 84-year-old Julia Shepherd, an active grandmother from a Los Angeles suburb, died of West Nile after becoming paralyzed and disoriented.

The case is exactly the type public health officials fear, one that robs healthy older adults — those most likely to be outdoors — of either their lives or their independence. Some half of older adults who have been infected with neurological symptoms have still not recovered their ability to function independently after a year, Schwartz said.

While they’re focussed on West Nile, which is transmitted by Culex mosquitoes, Kluh and her team do still monitor the spread of Aedes aegypti, which can transmit Zika. She’s also tracking Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito that’s a carrier of dengue and chikungunya. And she’s got her eye on the newly arrived Aussie Mozzie mosquito — Aedes notoscriptus — that transmits yet other viruses.

“I guess I’ve got job security,” she joked.

Kluh sees a silver lining in the invasion of these aggressive new species. Unlike California’s resident Culex mosquitoes, the newcomers bite humans more than birds, bite all day long, and tend to raise welts that are itchier and more noticeable. Because of this, many people here are finally starting to complain about mosquitoes — and that’s music to Kluh’s ears.

“Because it’s so unpleasant,” she said, “people might finally start protecting themselves from getting bitten.”

Trump Says His Pals Go To Africa To ‘Get Rich.’ Is That Offensive?

BY KLOPA ROBIN

Trump Image Via Amplify

It’s the latest in a series of Trump remarks that went viral.

Last week, President Donald Trump hosted a luncheon for a group of African heads of state in New York City as part of the U.N. General Assembly. He told his guests, which included the leaders of Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, “I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they’re spending a lot of money.”

The comment was part of an address on what Trump called Africa’s “tremendous business potential.”

CNN wrote about the address under the headline “Donald Trump’s comments on Africa at the UN were, um, odd.”

And indeed, some in the global African community were outraged by the “get rich” remark, saying it conjured images of the continent’s colonialist past.

But others praised it.

NPR asked three African entrepreneurs to share their perspectives.

For Manyang Reath Kher, a Lost Boy of Sudan who is now living in Richmond, Virginia, the question that came to his mind after hearing Trump’s comment: “How do you get rich in a poor country?”

And here’s his answer: “You buy stuff for a very cheap price, bring it [to the U.S.], and get a profit out of it. The people who are local never benefit,” he says. “Congo is one of the richest in natural resources in the world, but the country is very poor. Who are the [oil]wells going to?”

And he believes that when Trump refers to his “friends” he means international business people who exploit the poor for their “personal wealth,” which, he says, has been happening since Africa was first colonized by Europeans.

Kher himself is trying to bring more money into Africa — and he knows how hard it is to do business in a way that doesn’t exploit local workers. He founded 734 Coffee, a company that sells Ethiopian coffee and donates a portion of his proceeds to Sudanese refugees, and faced a mountain of paperwork to get started.

He says that it’s easier for big, international coffee conglomerates to buy beans in countries like Ethiopia. They have the money and power to negotiate and control the terms of sales in their favor, not the local farmers and agricultural workers.

Jacqueline Muna Musiitwa, a Zambian attorney, 2014 Aspen New Voices fellow and founder of the Kampala-based Hoja Law Group, is more optimistic about Trump’s remark.

“Trump sees another side of Africa that typically American leaders don’t voice,” she says.

She hopes his remark could lead to a discussion on Africa’s potential. “It’s the first time, at least during my lifetime, that there’s a positive outlook on opportunities for Africa,” she told NPR via Skype from Kampala, Uganda. “Are we going to see business as usual [from the U.S. government], as far as [them]focusing on social and military issues, or are we going to see commercial opportunities?”

Musiitwa, whose law firm represents governments and corporations in the U.S., Europe and Africa, says the onus now is on Africa to do business that’s beneficial to Africans. “Let’s make roads that go from one country to another. Let’s improve rail networks. Let’s improve telecommunications, let’s improve power, energy so we can manufacture, so we too can trade with the rest of the world.”

Ola Orekunrin Brown, a Nigerian-British medical doctor based in Lagos, says that Trump said what needed to be heard.

“If we try to take a positive view of his comment, then I think he’s being less condescending and a lot more helpful to us Africans,” says Brown, who is also a helicopter pilot and the managing director of the Flying Doctors, a for-profit air ambulance service that works in West Africa.

“We need to be talking about business, making money, profit,” she says. “And he said those words. It’s been a long time since I heard those words being used in relation to Africa like he did.”

What she’s used to hearing are comments from development agencies about bringing more foreign aid to Africa for health, education and other needs: “They’ve concentrated on the alleviation of poverty at the expense of creating prosperity,” says Brown. “For a lot of African countries, it’s produced a lot of dependency to aid.”

“From my perspective,” she adds, “Trump’s comment encourages people to view Africa as a destination for trade and entrepreneurship. [Poverty] will continue to be a problem until we can employ more people.”

Immigrants Line Up To Renew Work Permits As Program Ends

People wait in line at CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles) for help with immigration paperwork, including renewing work permits for expiring Obama-era program for immigrants brought to the country as children. After Oct. 5, 2017, no one else can renew under the program that has let nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the United States as children work in the country even though they lack legal papers.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The line stretches down the block before the sun rises in Los Angeles for immigrants seeking help to renew their work permits under a 5-year-old program that has shielded them from deportation but is now nearing its end.

Ivan Vizueta, a 25-year-old from Long Beach, California, brought a folding chair and music to pass the time while waiting to renew the papers that enable him to work for a plumbing company and earn nearly twice the wages he once did loading and unloading cargo containers. The lines have been a regular occurrence in recent days, with some people camping out as early as 3 a.m.

"I have to do this so I have another two years of safety," said Vizueta, who was brought to the country nearly two decades ago from Mexico and hopes to run his own plumbing business someday. For immigrants like Vizueta, it's a race against the clock as they rush to renew their permits ahead of a looming Oct. 5 deadline set by the Trump administration. After that date, no one else can renew under a program that has let nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the United States as children work even though they lack legal papers.

The work permits have been a lifeline for many young immigrants who have been educated in American schools and know no other home than the United States. The program created by President Barack Obama in 2012 also protected these immigrants, many of them in their 20s, from being deported to countries they hardly remember. Critics call it an illegal amnesty program that is taking jobs from U.S. citizens.

When President Donald Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program this month, he gave Congress six months to draft a more lasting fix. Democratic leaders and Trump said they have reached a deal to protect the immigrants, but Congress has since turned its focus to repealing Obama's health care law and overhauling the tax code. Democratic congressional leaders say they are waiting on the White House to craft a legislative proposal.

Meanwhile, immigrant advocates around the country have been urging the Trump administration to extend the Oct. 5 deadline and holding legal clinics and donating money to help immigrants cover the $500 renewal fee.

Jesus Perez of Phoenix says he's not sure he would have been able to come up with the cash in time to renew were it not for the financial help of an advocacy group that is among several giving financial aid and helping people fill out their paperwork in time. The 30-year-old father of three, with one on the way, was just approved to buy a home but can't complete the purchase until his renewal comes through.

"You're in limbo," said Perez, who works at a car wash and hopes to open his own business soon. In Las Vegas, fewer than 30 people have asked for a service provided by the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, causing alarm among organizers who are fearful immigrants are staying in the shadows or waiting too close to the deadline. The government must receive the renewal paperwork by Oct. 5, meaning it needs to be sent in most cases by this weekend.

"If you are not at the post office with an express mail envelope in your hand on the morning of Oct. 2, you are too late," said Michael Kagan, director of the Las Vegas clinic. Only immigrants whose permits are expiring before March 5, 2018, are eligible to apply for renewals. Those whose permits expire starting on March 6 will not be able to renew. The government estimates there are about 154,000 recipients whose permits expire between Sept. 5, 2017, when the Trump administration announced the end of the program, and March 5.

At the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, advocates have helped about 40 immigrants a day renew their permits for free. Immigrants began lining up outside before dawn to ensure they were seen quickly, as some have had to wait until the afternoon or the next day for assistance due to the demand, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the organization.

Maria Moreno, 23, lined up at 3 a.m. outside the group's offices on a recent morning to renew under the program, which has made it easier for her to work as a cashier and attend college to eventually become a special education teacher. She said her parents brought her to this country from Mexico when she was 10 months old.

"I've been here all my life," said Moreno, who lives in Los Angeles. "I've never been back there, and I'm hoping not to go." Oscar Gaytan, a 22-year-old history and Chicano Studies student at University of California, Los Angeles, was also among those waiting in line. He said his permit under the program is valid until the end of next year but was stolen from his gym locker, forcing him to refile paperwork.

Gaytan said he hopes to go on to become a professor or immigration lawyer after graduation but knows he'll need a work permit to do so. "When Trump rescinded DACA, I was pretty upset," said Gaytan, who was brought here from Mexico when he was 4. "But I feel like everything happens for a reason — so hopefully Congress acts."

Associated Press Writer Regina Garcia Cano contributed to this report from Las Vegas. Galvan reported in Phoenix.

The Latest: Iraq's Flight Ban On Kurds Goes Into Effect

A Kurdish flag hangs in the Irbil International Airport, in Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Iraq's prime minister ordered the country's Kurdish region to hand over control of its airports to federal authorities or face a flight ban, a response to the Kurdish independence referendum.

IRBIL, IRAQ (ASSOCIATED PRESS) -- The Latest on developments in Iraq (all times local): 6:00 p.m. A central government imposed ban on international flights servicing airports in Iraq's Kurdish region has gone into effect Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. local.

The flight ban has so far been the most significant escalation amid heightened tensions — largely marked by threats from Baghdad and neighboring countries — following the controversial referendum on support for independence held by Iraq's Kurds Monday.

While Iraq's parliament has called for troops to retake the contested city of Kirkuk from Kurdish forces and Turkey has threatened military intervention, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has not authorized the use of force against the Kurdish region.

Al-Abadi first warned of the flight ban the day after the referendum was held, demanding the Kurdish region hand their airports over to the central government. While Baghdad controls the airspace over the Kurdish region, immigration and security inside the airports themselves are controlled by local Kurdish region officials and security forces.

4:45 p.m.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the flight ban set to go into effect this evening is not intended to "starve" the Kurdish people.

Al-Abadi says "central government control of air and land ports in the Kurdistan region is not meant to starve, besiege and prevent (the delivery of) supplies to the citizens in the region as alleged by some Kurdistan region officials," in a written statement released by his office Friday afternoon.

All international flights traveling to and from the Kurdish region are expected to halt at 6:00 p.m. local time Friday.

A prolonged flight ban has the potential to further restrict the Kurdish region's already struggling economy, however land border crossings — where the vast majority of trade passes — remain open.

3:45 p.m.

Talar Saleh, the general director of Irbil International Airport, says Kurdish authorities were unaware of how to comply with Baghdad's demand to hand the airport over to federal authorities before Friday evening in order to avert the threatened flight ban.

The ban on international flights servicing airports in the Kurdish region is set to go into effect.

"We didn't understand what it meant," Saleh said of the demand. "An airport isn't an item that can be handed over to someone."

Saleh said authorities in Baghdad did not respond to requests for clarification. She condemned the ban, accusing the central government of "just punishing their own people."

Military, humanitarian and diplomatic flights will continue from the airport uninterrupted according to the information relayed from Baghdad, Saleh added.

3 p.m.

Hundreds of passengers are filing through Irbil international airport in the hours ahead of a flight ban threatened by Baghdad following a controversial Kurdish independence referendum held this week.

Airport officials speaking on condition of anonymity say the volume of passengers is higher than usual but no additional flights were added to accommodate people attempting to depart the region. The ban was scheduled to kick in Friday evening.

Many of the hundreds of people traveling Friday afternoon were foreigners ordered to leave the region by the companies they work for.

Joao Gabriel Villar, a Brazilian doctor working for a non-governmental organization that helps people displaced by the conflict with the Islamic State group, says: "Of course we don't want to leave."

Villar says he hopes he's able to return to finish his work.

— By Susannah George

2:05 p.m.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric has expressed opposition to the vote in an independence referendum held this week in Iraq's Kurdish region and disputed territories.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani says it "is an attempt to divide Iraq and take its northern part by setting up an independent state."

Al-Sistani's comments were the first by the top Shiite cleric since Monday's referendum.

In a statement read in the Shiite holy city of Karbala by cleric Ahmad al-Safi during Friday prayers, al-Sistani said all parties in Iraq should abide by the Iraqi constitution.

Al-Sistani warned that such "unilateral steps" toward dividing Iraq will lead to internal and external reactions that will have consequences on our "dear Kurdish citizens and could have more dangerous repercussion."

He called on Kurdish officials to return to the constitution.

9:15 a.m.

An Iraqi government order that international airlines halt all flights in and out of the cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah will kick in Friday evening local time.

The move is due to tensions over an independence referendum held this week in Iraq's Kurdish region and disputed territories.

Iraq's Transport Ministry ordered international airlines to halt service to Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital, and Sulaimaniyah, its second city.

Regional airlines have said they will honor the flight ban.

The nonbinding referendum — in which the Kurds voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Iraq — was billed by Kurdish leaders as an exercise in self-determination. The idea of an independent state has been central to Kurdish politics for decades.

California Regulator Admits To Anxiety As Legal Pot Nears

California top state pot regulator Lori Ajax addresses an industry group meeting in Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. California's emerging marijuana industry is being rattled by an array of unknowns, as the state races to issue its first licenses to grow and sell legal recreational pot on Jan. 1. Ajax says she doesn't know how many operators will come forward to seek licenses. Proposition 64, which legalized recreational pot use for adults, takes effect next year.

LONG BEACH, CALIF. (AP, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017) — In about three months, recreational marijuana sales will kick off in California, yet no one knows exactly how the pot economy will work. It could take until late November for the state to issue regulations that will govern the new marketplace.

Meanwhile, growers and sellers are wondering how the industry can function when some operators will have licenses and others might not. There are also questions about banking and federal law enforcement, since pot remains illegal in the eyes of the U.S. government.

"We all have anxiety," top state marijuana regulator Lori Ajax told an industry group Thursday. "It's not going to be perfect." Last year, California voters approved Proposition 64, which legalized recreational pot sales to adults in the nation's most populous state.

The law takes effect in 2018, when newly legalized recreational sales will be merged with the state's two-decade-old medical marijuana market. Ajax heard a range of concerns from operators and consultants who are trying to maneuver through a maze of new rules that will dictate where pot can be grown, how it's tested, distributed, taxed and sold.

Ajax said she doesn't know how many operators will come forward to seek licenses. It's a critical question, since the state's legitimate pot sales could be undercut by illegal operators. Speaking in Long Beach, Ajax said the state is preparing to issue temporary licenses for growers, sellers and manufacturers on Jan. 1. It expects that businesses that receive licenses will only work with others that hold them.

But that has alarmed operators who wonder what will happen if their supplier, for example, decides not to join the new system. "You would have to shut your doors until your supplier can come online," industry consultant Jackie McGowan said, calling that prospect potentially "disastrous" for the young industry.

Ajax appeared to ease concerns that the state would move quickly on enforcement against operations without licenses. If the state is aware a business has applied for a license, "I don't want you to have anxiety that we're out there and we're going to be enforcing everything right away," Ajax said.

To obtain a state license, operators must first have a local license or authorization. Los Angeles is still working on its rules and the city is facing criticism that some operators could be cut out of the market.

In addition, it appears San Francisco will not be ready for legal sales in January — and perhaps not for months. The state will begin by issuing temporary licenses, good for four months. But those could be extended, if necessary.

By legalizing recreational pot, California is attempting to transform its vast marijuana black market into the nation's biggest legal pot economy, valued at $7 billion. Ajax also heard concerns about the possibility that cottage-industry growers could be overrun by huge operators, backed by Wall Street dollars.

"Capitalism is messed up at best," said Justin Calvino, who sits on the board of the California Growers Association, an industry group. He warned that smaller growers struggling to survive could be shuttered "when you have licenses being issued to people with the most money, or to people that have the most lobbyists or the best marketing."

Ajax got a round of applause when she said her agency would be open on Jan. 1 to begin issuing licenses. "We are probably going to do regular business hours," she said. "Even though it's a holiday we are coming in and we are going to get it done because it's important to all of us that we are successful in this."

Ohanaeze Leader, Nwodo At Chatham House, Insists On Restructuring

BY ONYEBUCHI EZIGBO, ABUJA

Nnia Nwodo Image Via This Day Newspapers

CHATHAM HOUSE, LONDON (THIS DAY) -- The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, has maintained that restructuring of Nigeria is the answer to the wave of agitations currently hitting across Nigeria.

Nwodo who delivered a lecture at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House in London wednesday, said the country is ripe for restructuring now more than before because all indicators point to that fact.

In his paper titled: ‘Restructuring Nigeria: Decentralisation for National Cohesion’, Nwodo took a historical look at Nigeria’s political journey and concluded that the present structure in operation has failed because it’s not created by the Nigeria people.

“Our present constitution is not autochthonous. It was not written by the people of Nigeria. It was not approved in a national referendum. In jurisprudence, its effectiveness will score a very low grade on account of its unacceptability. Regrettably, it continues to hold sway and begins with a false proclamation, ‘We the People of Nigeria’,” he said.

While answering questions from the Chairman of the occasion and the Editor of African Business Magazine, Mr. Lanre Akinola, on the imperatives of the restructuring now, Nwodo said never in the history of Nigeria has there been harmony to reshape the country as it is now.

In his speech, Nwodo said the entire southern Nigeria and parts of the middle belt are unanimous for the restructuring of the country.

He also said the disenchantment in the country over the existing structure is such that it would be gloomy if the desires of majority of the people are not met or continue to be deliberately ignored.

The Ohanaeze leader berated the federal government for declaring the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist organisation when their activities do not merit them such status, adding that the same government overlooked the activities of more dangerous armed militant groups like Fulani herdsmen whom they merely branded criminals.

“The declaration of IPOB as a terrorist organisation is in my view, hurried, unfair and not in conformity with the intendment of the law. Whereas I am not completely in agreement with some of the methods of IPOB-its inappropriate and divisive broadcast-the uncontested evidence given by the Attorney General of the Federation in an interlocutory action claiming that IPOB members attempted and/or actually snatched guns from law enforcement agents are, if proven, merely criminal offences. They do not constitute enough evidence to meet international law definitions of a terrorist organisation. Happily, the United States Embassy in Nigeria only three days ago shared this conclusion and asserted that the US government does not recognise IPOB as a terrorist organisation.

“This same unarmed IPOB that is being stigmatised by the Nigerian Government had its members murdered in Asaba, Nkpor, Aba and Port Harcourt simply for having public demonstrations without the federal government ordering a judicial inquiry. Instead, after I called for one and Amnesty International provided evidence that 150 of them were killed, the Chief of Army Staff Yusuf Burutai, set up an inquiry composed of serving and retired army officers thus abandoning the rules of natural justice which prescribes that you cannot be a judge in your own court,” he stated.

Speaking on the need for restructuring of the Nigerian federation, Ohanaeze leader said: “A model based on sharing of government revenue must give way to a new structure that will challenge and drive productivity in different regions across the country. This new model must take into account that the factors driving productivity in today’s world are no longer fossil oil rather it’s the proliferation of a knowledge-based economy.”

He noted that the restructuring of Nigeria into smaller and independent federation limits and the devolution of powers to these federating units to control exclusively their human capital development, mineral resources, agriculture and power (albeit with an obligation to contribute to the federal government), is the only way to salvage Nigerian fledging economy.

Nwodo expressed regret that those campaigning against restructuring in Nigeria have painted an unfortunate and untrue picture that those of us in support of restructuring are doing so in order to deny the Northern states which have not yet proven any oil reserves of the ability to survive.

“This is unfortunate! The new model we propose for Nigeria recognises that revenue in the world today is promoted by two main sources namely, human capital development leveraging on technology to drive the critical sectors of the economy and agriculture.

“Ten years ago, the top 10 companies in the world were the likes of Exxon Mobil, Shell and Total. Today the top eight companies in the world are represented by technology-related companies. They are Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon,” the Igbo leader said.

On the deployment of federal troops to the region, Nwodo said: “Our endurance has been stretched beyond Hooke’s gauge for elastic limit. The deployment of the Nigerian army under the guise of Operation Python Dance II to the South-east was unconstitutional under Section 271 of the 1999 Constitution,” noting that it was intended to provoke the people.
Nwodo charged President Muhammadu Buhari to rise up to the challenge and lead the process of restructuring this country.

The discourse at Chatham house was witnessed by a cross section of Nigerians resident in UK as well as the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Achebe.

Iraq's Kurds Say 92% Voted In Favor Of Independence

Travelers line up to check in at the Irbil International Airport, in Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Iraq's prime minister ordered the country's Kurdish region to hand over control of its airports to federal authorities or face a flight ban, a response to the Kurdish independence referendum.

IRBIL, IRAQ (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) — The Kurdish referendum on independence from Iraq was approved by more than 92 percent of voters, officials said Wednesday, as Iraq's prime minister vowed to keep his country united without resorting to the use of force.

Even with the strong support, the non-binding vote is unlikely to lead to formal independence, but it has escalated long-running tensions with Baghdad, which has moved to block flights in and out of the Kurds' autonomous region. Iraq and its neighbors, along with virtually the entire international community, are opposed to any redrawing of the map.

Hendrin Mohammed, the head of the Kurdish region's election commission, announced the official results at a press conference, saying the referendum passed with 92.73 percent support and turnout of more than 72 percent.

The vote was held across the autonomous Kurdish region's three provinces as well as in some disputed territories controlled by Kurdish forces but claimed by Baghdad. Mohammed said the counting of votes was complete and that the results would be considered final once they are certified by the Kurdish region's department of justice.

The commission did not comment on turnout in the disputed territories, which could serve as an indicator of how many people in those areas prefer Kurdish rule. Mohammed told The Associated Press those numbers would be released by local authorities, without elaborating.

Iraq's Arab-dominated parliament has given Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi the mandate to deploy troops in the disputed territories, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, but al-Abadi said Wednesday he doesn't want a "fight between the Iraqi citizens."

At a meeting with lawmakers, he instead vowed to "enforce the rule of the federal authority in the Kurdish region with the power of the constitution." Parliament has demanded that Baghdad refrain from taking part in any dialogue with the Kurds until the results of Monday's vote are cancelled. It also called on the government to bring those behind the vote, including Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani, to justice. The demands are non-binding.

Al-Abadi has ordered the Kurdish region to hand over control of its airports to federal authorities by Friday, threatening a flight ban if they refuse. Iraq's Transport Ministry has ordered international airlines to halt service to Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital, and Sulaimaniyah, its second city, beginning Friday evening.

Middle East Airlines, the flagship carrier of Lebanon, and EgyptAir have announced that they will comply, cancelling all flights after Friday. Low-cost airline FlyDubai says its flights to Irbil are in question from Saturday on.

Turkey has warned its citizens that flight service to the Kurdish region will be suspended as of 6:00 p.m. Friday (1500 GMT). A statement posted on the Turkish Consulate's website in Irbil said flights by Turkish Airlines, AtlasGlobal and Pegasus "won't be possible" after Friday evening. It added that authorities were working to increase flights until then.

The transport minister for Iraq's Kurdish region said Wednesday the region's international airports have not violated any laws that would warrant their closure. Mawlood Bawa Murad told reporters his ministry is ready to negotiate with Baghdad "if they want to implement the law and show that Iraq has one air space."

He added that the flight ban would affect, "one way or another, the military aviation that operates from Irbil international airport," which is used for the campaign against the Islamic State group.

Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad, Sarah El-Deeb in Beirut, Bram Janssen in Irbil, Iraq, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey contributed to this report.

Nigeria Expecting Fighter Jets From Russia, US, Pakistan, UAE

BY OLALEYE ALUKO

PUNCH, NIGERIA

Chief Of Air Staff Air Marshal Sadiq Abubkar

ABUJA, NIGERIA (PUNCH NEWSPAPERS) -- The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has said the Nigerian Air Force is expecting new fighter aircraft from no fewer than four countries to boost its capabilities.

He listed the countries as Russia, the United States of America, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Abubakar, who identified the NAF’s challenges as insufficient aircraft and low aircraft serviceability, said his men were working towards “more professionalism to meet the security imperatives.”

The air force chief stated this on Saturday at a lecture delivered to the Senior Course 40 at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State.

The lecture was titled, ‘The Nigerian Air Force in Contemporary Warfare; the Chief of the Air Staff’s Vision for Future Engagements.’

According to Abubakar, while Nigeria is expecting eight Mi-35M attack helicopters from Russia, it is also waiting for the Super Tucano aircraft from the United States.

Moreover, there are five Super Mushshak aircraft expected from Pakistan, while the Yabhon Flash 20 Remote Piloted aircraft is also expected from the UAE.

Abubakar added, “The enormous cost of aircraft acquisition and maintenance infers that such should be carved out as extra-budgetary expenditure while platform maintenance and upgrade must also be moved from recurrent to capital expenditure.

“From a total of 10 Mi-35M helicopters expected, the service has already acquired two, while an additional two are in the production line and to be delivered soon. There is also an indication of the sale of the Super Tucano aircraft by the United States Government.

“Furthermore, out of the expected 10 Super Mushshak primary trainer aircraft procured, five have been inducted into the NAF inventory to enhance flight training.

“In the same vein, efforts are ongoing for the acquisition of the Super Tucano Light Attack Aircraft and delivery of the Yabhon Flash 20 Remote Piloted Aircraft.”

The air chief stated that the NAF also had to compete with local and international aviation industry for the limited aviation engineers in the country.